Book ,Wr t A5 
Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Pastoral Memories 

OR 

Reminiscences and Reflections 



Rkv. E. P. WHALLON, Ph.D., D.D. 

Author of "The Foursquare Christian" 



"I will remember the years of the right hand of 
the Most High. I will remember the works of the 
IyOrd." — Psalm lxxvii. 10, n. 



Monfort & Company 
cincinnati 

1907 



fygBARYof CONGRESS 
Two Goeies Received 
SEP 30 190f 
CopynsrM Entry 

!CWSS4 XXc, Nd. 
1 COPY &._ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1907, 

By MONFORT & CO., 

in the Office of the librarian of Congress, 
at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



The incidents which are narrated on 
these pages have been noted in the course 
of the writer's personal pastoral experi- 
ences. They are, for the most part, such 
as come into the life of almost any pas- 
tor. It may be that some of the persons 
of whom mention is made may recognize 
themselves as referred to in some of the 
narratives. It is not possible^ however, I 
think, that the slightest embarrassment 
shall be caused to any one, as the allu- 
sions are not, it would seem, of such a 
nature as to disturb even the most sensi- 
tive. The relations of a pastor to his peo- 
ple are regarded by him as absolutely 
sacred, and any confidence reposed in him 
will be by him as carefully guarded as 

(3) 



4 



Preface. 



any professional secret by a reputable 
lawyer or physician. Many interesting 
incidents have had no mention because 
of obligations to keep inviolate what has 
been committed confidentially to the pas- 
tor's ear and heart. What has been said 
has been, in every case, in the endeavor 
to illustrate and enforce some of the prac- 
tical and helpful truths of the Gospel, 
thereby helping others to know and serve 
Christ, and to glorify God. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Infidel Tract Distributor 9 

Waiting for an Invitation 13 

An Early Sabbath Morning Call.... 17 

"Worth All the Meeting" 21 

The Only Years that Count 26 

"I Covet Him for Christ" 30 

The Washerwoman and the Priest . . 34 
"You Can Not Speak too Plainly" . . 38 
"The Happiest Man in the World".. 42 

The Terrible Habit of Delay 46 

Waiting for a Revival 50 

"A Mighty Nice Funeral" 54 

A Faith-Cure Experiment 58 

My First Marriage Ceremony 62 

Infant Baptism 66 

"Only a Suicide" 70 

Some Teachers I Have Known 74 

Profane Swearing 78 



(5) 



1 



6 Table of Contents. 

PAGE 

The Comfort of Christ 83 

My Friend, the Engineer 87 

"You Saved My Life" 92 

Reconciliation and Revival 96 

Personal Work for Souls 100 

Personal Invitations to Christ 104 

The, Power of Early Influences 108 

Sad Hearts and Troubled Lives 113 

The Keeping of Christmas 117 

Commercial Value of the Church . . . 122 

Religion Put to the Test 127 

Afraid of the Bible. 132 

My First Rainy Sabbath 136 

The Old Black Bottle 140 

Leaving Christ Out 144 

Answers to Prayer 149 

Surprises Amy Disappointments 154 

Church Letters 158 

Knowing People in Their Homes 163 

The Sense of Personal Sin 168 



Table of Contents. 



7 



PAGE 

Some Ruling Elders I Have Known. .172 



A Dangerous Error and Delusion. . .176 

The Danger of Delay 180 

Fires That Burn Body and Soul 184 

Practical Work for Righteousness. 188 

A Lesson in Church Comity 192 

The Black Sheep of the Family 196 

Revivals 201 

Uniting with the Church 206 

Old-Fashioned Bible Reading 210 

"A Very Peculiar Case" 214 

The Power of One Person 219 

God Stronger than the Storm 224 

Religious Differences 228 

The Sorrows and Comfort of Life. . .233 

Looking Toward the Future 237 

"The Hour and Article of Death'\.242 

The Sermon as a Means of Grace 246 

Stubbornness and Faith 251 

The Prayer-Meeting People 254 



THE INFIDEL TRACT DISTRIBUTOR. 



It was the first summer of my ministry. 
A public meeting had drawn a large crowd 
to the finely-shaded court-house square of 
the beautiful county seat, and exercises 
of a popular nature, including public 
speaking and a social dinner, had engaged 
general attention. As I was walking near 
the outskirts of the crowd, in the after- 
noon, a gray-haired old man, with sinister 
countenance and rather forbidding appear- 
ance, in general, approached me with what 
seemed to be a large package of tracts in 
his hands, which he was industriously dis- 
tributing. 

Offering me one, I extended my hand to 
receive it, but, noticing that the heading 
indicated a blasphemous tirade against the 
Christian religion, I turned from him with 
a repellant gesture. Immediately he burst 
out: "You'd better take it. You'd better 
get all of them from me if you could. If 
you don't take it I'll give it to some of 
these people and make what you call in- 
fidels out of them. I'm going to give all 
of these away this afternoon, and you 
(2) (9) 



10 Pastoral Memories. 



can't, as you call it, convert enough peo- 
ple in two years to undo what I will do 
in one day. You've just come here, I un- 
derstand. It's a pity for a young man to 
start in to throw his life away in trying 
to build up what's sure to go to pieces. 
There's nothing in religion or the Bible. 
It will be only a little while until all these 
churches are deserted. In twenty years 
there won't be a church member in this 
town." On he went, a mad rage filling his 
heart, as he sowed tares with his hands 
and blasphemed with his lips. 

Much more than twenty years have gone 
by since that day. The distributer of in- 
fidel tracts long since closed his earthly 
antagonism to divine truth, and his name 
has passed into merited oblivion. The un- 
believing clan of .which he was a leader 
has been dispersed. Its old headquarters 
has disappeared. But the church of Christ 
in that community was never so strong as 
it is to-day. The humble sanctuaries of 
that earlier day have been succeeded by 
commodious, substantial and attractive edi- 
fices in which the gospel of Christ is 
preached faithfully to-day and where God's 
people joyfully assemble for loving wor- 
ship in larger numbers than in the days 
when the reckless and confident boast was 



The Infidel Tract Distributor. 11 



uttered as to the speedy extinction of the 
church in that community. 

The gospel is an anvil that has worn out 
many a hammer. The church of Christ 
is not to be driven out of this world. It 
is to triumph over all opposition. God has 
made a covenant with his Son that the 
heathen shall be given him for an inher- 
itance and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for his possession. There can never be a 
moment's doubt as to the ultimate triumph 
of Christianity in the world. Christ shall 
not fail, nor shall he be discouraged until 
he shall have set judgment in the earth 
and the isles shall wait for his law. 

We sometimes allow ourselves almost to 
be frightened lest the foundations are, 
after all, to be destroyed. An infidel lec- 
turer goes trumpeting through the land; a 
faithless professor avows his hostility to 
the truth as it is in Jesus; a preacher dis- 
courses heresy of the most pronounced and 
unblushing sort; a popular book is the 
vehicle for disseminating doubt and false- 
hood; unbelief boasts the speedy triumph 
of error, and the faint-hearted falter out 
the fear that the church of Christ must 
suffer defeat and perish before the new 
thought of an age that has turned its back 
on the gospel of the grace of God. 



12 Pastoral Memories. 



Let us be faithful and fearless. Infidel- 
ity is doomed. The church of Christ is 
marching on to triumph and a crown. 
This earth is, some day, to be a new earth 
in which dwelleth righteousness. Be pa- 
tient, be faithful, be fearless. Let the 
gospel be preached in its simplicity and 
lived in its gracious tenderness and beauty. 
No weapon that is formed against the 
cause of Christ shall prosper. In the con- 
flict for the truth good men and good 
women and God are on one side. Against 
all the bad men and bad women in the 
world that side is sure to win. 



WAITING FOR AN INVITATION. 

One July Sabbath morning in making the 
announcements for the week, I said: "We 
are always glad to meet those who wish to 
confess Christ and unite with the church. 
It is not the time for our communion, but 
we should not wait for that time either 
to give or to accept an invitation to come 
out on the side of Christ. If any one 
wishes to remain at the close of the service 
we shall be very glad to extend a hearty 
welcome in the name of Christ." It was 
not an unusual thing to give such an invi- 
tation, for I wished every one to under- 
stand that the church was always open to 
those who were ready to enter its member- 
ship with the right spirit. 

At the close of the service a young man 
of bright countenance came forward and 
said: "I am a stranger here, but I have 
come here to reside for the present. This 
is the first time I have been in the church. 
I trust that I am a Christian and have 
been one for over a year. I wish to con- 
fess Christ and unite with the church." 

"But if you have been a Christian for 
over a year," was asked him, "how is it that 
(13) 



14 Pastoral Memories. 



you have delayed making a profession of 
your faith and uniting with the church? 
Is not this a good while to have waited?" 
"Yes," was the answer, "but I have been 
waiting for an invitation. I determined 
to unite with the Presbyterian Church the 
very first time an invitation should be 
given in my hearing. I have not lived in 
any one place all the time, and that may 
account for it, but I have never heard an 
invitation until this morning. If you will 
accept me, I would like to become a mem- 
ber of this church." 

He was received and became a consistent 
and useful member. Going to another place 
he became a Sabbath-school superintendent 
and a ruling elder, and has always been an 
intelligent and efficient worker in the 
church. 

This incident, occurring at the very be- 
ginning of my ministry, had quite an influ- 
ence upon my own work in succeeding 
years. If persons are waiting for an in- 
vitation, or for a little encouragement of 
any sort, they should not be kept waiting 
long. If the frequent giving of the invita- 
tion tends to set the church right in the 
minds of the community, as the Bride that 
is always saying "Come," let the invitation 
be given very frequently. There comes no 



Waiting for an Invitation. 15 



loss of dignity from the doing of duty, even 
if the invitation is not always accepted. 

It may be said that if this young man 
had gone to any minister whom he had 
heard preach and had stated his wishes, he 
would have been met cordially and the 
way opened for his reception into the mem- 
bership of the church. There is no doubt 
as to this, but, like many others, he was 
somewhat diffident and uninformed, and so 
he simply waited. He might have been 
more forward, but there is a good deal of 
timidity on the part of a great many people 
in the matter of confessing Christ. 

A young man went to a preparatory ser- 
vice intending fully to go into the session 
room at the close of the meeting and unite 
with the church. When the benediction 
was pronounced and the congregation 
turned to go out, he was panic stricken at 
the thought of facing them, and so turned 
and walked out with them and walked 
two or three squares before he felt suffi- 
ciently collected to be able to return. Thi3 
he did, at last, and reached the session 
room, late, to be sure, but in time to be 
received into the church. He became, 
afterward, an exceedingly useful and suc- 
cessful minister of the Gospel in our Pres- 
byterian Church, but his own experience 



16 



Pastoral Memories. 



on that Saturday afternoon always made 
him very considerate of, and sympathetic 
with, those who were timid and shrinking 
about coming publicly into the Church of 
Christ. 

The fact is that people need a great deal 
of help just at the time they are feeling 
their way into making a profession of faith 
in Christ. The invitation can not be too 
kind and cordial. A helping word from 
a companion may be of incalculable assist- 
ance. It is a good thing, literally, to bring 
our friends and associates, not only to 
Christ, but to the minister or the session. 
Let us keep the door open and make the 
invitations frequent and friendly in the 
name of him who invites us all to come to 
him. 



AN EARLY SABBATH MORNING CALL. 

Early on a communion Sabbath morning, 
before I had risen, I heard a rap on the 
door of the room of my boarding-house, 
and almost immediately a gentleman 
stepped in, closed the door, and said: "I 
hope you will excuse me for coming in so 
early, but I have made up my mind to 
come out on the Lord's side, and I could 
hardly wait until morning to come and see 
you. I want to be received into the church 
and come to the communion this morning 
if you can arrange for it and will accept 
me." 

As this was early in my ministry, and 
one of the first communion services I had 
held, I was much impressed by this abrupt 
early visit and by the fact that all the 
other members of his very interesting 
family were very soon after gathered with 
him into the membership of the church. 
It was not a merely emotional outburst, 
but the expression of deep and settled con- 
viction, which marked his life from that 
moment to the hour of his death, which 
occurred many years after. So much con- 

(17) 



18 Pastoral Memories. 



fidence had the people in his Christian 
character that he was made a ruling elder 
and became Sabbath-school superintendent 
while I was still pastor of that church. 

Conversing one day with a very intelli- 
gent but very fault-finding woman, and 
urging upon her the subject of personal re- 
ligion, I was told by her that it would not 
be worth while to ask her to unite with a 
church in which all of the members, so 
far as she could see, were living wrong 
and insincere lives. Judging, probably by 
the expression of my face, that I believed 
she had gone much too far, she concluded 
to make one concession by saying: "Well, 
I will admit that there is one perfectly con- 
sistent man in the church, against whom 
nothing can be said," and she mentioned 
the name of this elder. I hastened to tell 
her that there were many others with 
whom she might feel happy to be associated 
if she really wished to serve Christ, but 
I felt then and still feel that her remark 
was the sort of tribute, wrung from un- 
willing lips as it was, that only a really 
good man could have secured. 

It is a great thing to be able to live so 
faithfully and consistently that even those 
who are unfavorably disposed toward re- 
ligion will be compelled to admit that the 



An Early Sabbath Morning Call. 19 



life tells for God. Where the life is simply 
surrendered to the divine control there 
will be no question as to its influence and 
outcome. Where there is this simple and 
entire surrender from the very start, there 
will be great peace and gladness, as well 
as convincing power, in the life, for I look 
back to this elder as one of the very hap- 
piest Christian men whom I ever knew. 

He was happy because he simply trusted 
and obeyed God in a straightforward life 
of faith. He had his full share of severe 
trials and burdens in the way of ill-health 
and financial difficulties, but he was sus- 
tained and kept in it all, and maintained a 
serene composure, under all the vicissitudes 
of his life. For, after all, happiness comes 
from within rather than from without, or, 
more exactly, comes from above rather 
than from beneath, and is a peace that 
only God can give and that nothing that 
is created can take away. 

Mr. John V. Parwell once remarked that 
the world had yet to learn the power of a 
perfectly consecrated life, and Mr. D. L. 
Moody, at that time a young clerk, respond- 
ed, in his own soul: "By God's grace I 
will be that man." We know something 
of the great life that was the outcome of 
that great self-dedication. But there are 



20 



Pastoral Memories. 



many men to whom God does not give the 
same kind of call that he gave Dwight L». 
Moody, who are living in quiet places and 
in humble ways, earnestly and obediently, 
leaving the impression upon others of sin- 
cere consistency in their faithful following 
of Jesus Christ their Savior. 



"WORTH ALL THE MEETING." 



There are usually great surprises in an 
evangelistic meeting. The pastor, gener- 
ally, at the outset of a series of meetings, 
has in mind certain persons whom he ex- 
pects to see led to a decision during that 
special effort. Very often, however, he is 
sadly disappointed. They do not come to 
Christ. For some reason or other he can 
not reach them. But, on the other hand, 
some of whom he never thought or 
knew, become interested, and are con- 
verted and brought into the church. Every 
pastor, probably, has often had such sur- 
prises. 

During one winter, years ago, I held a 
meeting running through several weeks. 
Many things, such as bad weather and 
prevalent sickness, had greatly interfered 
with the attendance, but many were com- 
ing faithfully, and some unconverted per- 
sons seemed to be deeply impressed. One 
man especially had attracted my attention 
by his apparent interest and his regular 
attendance. One evening, speaking of this 
man who was prominent in business, a 
(21) 



22 



Pastoral Memories. 



member of the church said to me: "If you 
only get this one man, it will be worth 
all the meeting." 

Before the meeting closed this man did 
come, and his wife, and quite a good many 
more, and confessed Christ as their Savior. 
Years have gone by. The last I heard of 
this man he was still faithful and living 
consistently. He has done perhaps as 
well as could be expected. I have had 
great joy in thinking of him and of many 
others whom I have seen come out on the 
Lord's side. But he was in mature life 
when he came, had had no special train- 
ing in active church work, and was never 
very noticeably active or efficient as a 
spiritual force in the congregation. 

A short time afterwards, during a meet- 
ing in which I had the assistance of a very 
excellent evangelist, seven children were 
received into the church by the session at 
the close of the first week. An officer of 
the church asked me if we were still to 
go on with the meeting. I answered him 
that I hoped to do so, and asked him if 
there was not reason for encouragement. 
He replied: "I do not see why you should 
be encouraged. Why, you are not getting 
hold of any persons, in this meeting, ex- 
cept children." Of course I did not allow 



"Worth All the Meeting:' 23 



my feelings to be too much dampened by 
his remarks. The meeting went on and 
some more children were received. 

As a good many years have passed 
since then those children are no longer 
children. Twenty years have made them 
men and women. They have been trained 
in the Sabbath-school and Endeavor So- 
ciety. They have grown up in the life 
and work of the church. Most of them 
are useful members adding to the strength 
of the cause, and some of them are offi- 
cers in the church and workers in the 
Sabbath-school. They have, already, had 
twenty years of life in the church, and, if 
God spares them, they will have many 
more. 

It pays better to receive children than 
grown people into the church in the long 
run. They have longer to live. They 
will make better and more useful mem- 
bers. Their young lives will be sheltered 
and kept from the worst evils of the 
world. They will be more apt, humanly 
speaking, to be faithful and steadfast. 
Charles H. Spurgeon received about five 
thousand members into his church, and of 
these nearly three-fourths were children 
and young people. He testified that he 
had never had any serious difficulty with 



24 



Pastoral Memories. 



those who had been received while sixteen 
years of age or under. 

Rev. Dr. Edward Payson Hammond, the 
great evangelist, has always paid a great 
deal of attention to securing the conver- 
sion of children, and thinks that this is 
the most encouraging and promising de- 
partment in evangelistic work. Frequently 
he has men who are now judges or leaders 
in business, arise in his meetings and tes- 
tify that they were converted under his 
preaching, years ago, when seven, ten or 
twelve years of age. Doubtless there were 
those who sneered then at the thought of 
mere children claiming to be converted, but 
there was no reason for sneering. They 
have had many years for serving God. 

It is a great thing to see any one, at 
any age, led to Christ and to a place in 
his church, and any pastor is rejoiced to 
see mature men and women coming out on 
the Lord's side. But really, if I had the 
opportunity to go into a congregation and 
select, at any given time, a given number 
of persons to be received into the church, 
having in view spiritual results, and the 
ultimate strengthening of the church and 
the glory of Christ, I should pass by the 
bankers and judges and doctors who have 
grown up unconverted, and choose the 



"Worth All the Meeting: 1 25 



boys and girls of the congregation. From 
my own experience I should have more 
hope as to the outcome. In the long run 
I should expect greater results. I think 
I have come to understand something of 
what Christ meant by saying that "of 
such is the kingdom of heaven." 



(3) 



THE ONLY YEARS THAT COUNT. 

In one of my early charges was a re- 
markably efficient and devoted elder. He 
was always to be depended on, and was a 
most helpful worker in the church. He 
was a very busy man, but so methodical 
and industrious that he always had time 
to do the additional thing that needed to 
be done. He was ready of speech, alert in 
action, agreeable in person, intelligent, 
cultivated and ready to use his various tal- 
ents, cheerfully and heartily, in the work 
of the church. He was a man whom the 
children loved, the people trusted, and the 
pastor prized. 

One day the question was asked him as 
to the length of time he had lived in that 
community. He answered: "Only about 
two years. I was here for some years be- 
fore that, but I do not like to think of 
them. The last two years are all that 
count." I asked him no further questions, 
but I learned from others that he had not 
misestimated. He had been in business 
there for several years, but, although he 
had been reared religiously and trained to 
know and regard the truth of the Gospel he 
( 26 ) 



The Only Years that Count. 27 



had been careless and irreligious, a neg- 
lecter of church and Gospel, until he was 
converted, unmistakably, in a blessed re- 
vival. So marked had been the change in 
his life, and so positive were the evidences 
he gave of a life consecrated to Christ, that 
he was in a short time made a ruling el- 
der. In the various churches to which he 
belonged, in various cities, he was prompt- 
ly made an elder, and held the office con- 
stantly, I suppose, until the time of his 
lamented death, which occurred not long 
since. 

His words were a correct and striking 
commentary on the value and meaning of 
a Christian life as compared with irre- 
ligious and dissipated years. Only the 
years that are spent for Christ are worthy 
of being counted. The others are wasted 
years. They fail of the true purpose and 
accomplishment of life. They go by with- 
out acknowledgment of God's claim, or of 
loving obedience and service. 

In every real meaning of the words one 
does not begin to live until he is born 
again, and begins to live in the right way. 
The new life is the true life. The life 
that is born from on high is the one that 
counts, and the only one that does count. 
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 



28 



Pastoral Memories. 



and is sadly deficient. He who wastes his 
years, and then comes to the Heavenly 
Father in penitence and faith, has only 
sadness and regret, as he looks back over 
the years spent in wandering and sin. The 
prodigal took no pride in the years that 
he had spent in riotous living and in feed- 
ing the swine. Life began to count again 
only after he came back home. 

I remember well a communion service 
when sixteen members were received on 
profession of their faith in Christ, stand- 
ing in a row that reached around the pul- 
pit platform. Of these fifteen were young 
people, averaging about sixteen years of 
age. The sixteenth person was a woman 
76 years of age, or sixty years above the 
average age of the others. At the close 
of the service, in response to the question: 
"Why have you not been a member of the 
Church coming to the communion of the 
Lord's Supper for sixty years?" there 
was a quick tightening of the hand-grasp 
and a sudden filling of the eyes with tears. 
Life had commenced to count only after 
the lapse of more than the three score 
years and ten. 

Better, far better, is it to give the heart 
to Christ in early life, that there may be 
no prodigal y*ear» spent over which to 



The Only Years that Count. *9 



weep unavailing tears. Better that the 
years may be made to count from early 
childhood to the full limit to which length- 
ens out the life. Better let all the years 
be full of sweet and sacred service than to 
devote merely the remnant of the days to 
him who kept back nothing from those 
whom he loved, and loved unto the end. 



"I COVET HIM FOR CHRIST." 



It was at a great Moody meeting. Min- 
isters and other Christian workers had 
been crowding around the great evangel- 
ist. A young lawyer of my acquaintance, 
not a professed Christian, but one who was 
feeling his way to Christ, and who was a 
most admirable and morally excellent 
young man, told me of his great desire to 
meet Mr. Moody. "But," said he, "I am 
not even a member of the church, and his 
time is more than taken up with the min- 
isters and other Christian people who press 
themselves on his attention. He would 
not care to speak to me, anyhow, I am 
afraid." 

So he hung back, notwithstanding my 
urgent invitation to him to come and be 
introduced. It was a sort of Zaccheus case. 
He was not short of stature, but of fine 
and winning presence, and one to admire 
and love on first seeing The afternoon 
intermission went by. We were together 
at the evening service. Mr. Moody had 
preached a stirring sermon, and commenced 
the inquiry meeting. My friend was not 
willing to go to this meeting, but told me 
(30) 



"I Covet Him for Christ." 31 



that he would wait for me on the sidewalk 
outside the hall. 

Upon going out to rejoin him, in half an 
hour or so, he said: "What do you think? 
Mr. Moody came rushing out this door 
a while ago, almost fell over me, and com- 
menced urging me to be a Christian. He 
has just gone back into the hall." While 
we were still standing there talking, out 
jumped and stumbled Mr. Moody into the 
darkness, fairly falling on our necks. "Oh, 
it's you, is it," he said: "Remember you 
must be a Christian." Then turning to me, 
he said: "I covet him for Christ. Dan't 
give him a minute's rest to-night, until he 
accepts the Savior." Then he was away 
on the run, to overtake some one with 
whom he was going for the night. 

My friend and I talked long and earnest- 
ly that night. I too coveted him for Christ. 
I think he found his way into the new life 
through the experiences of that evening. 
The last I heard of him he and his fam- 
ily were happily united in the joys and 
usefulness of Christian life. 

What I was impressed by was the abso- 
lute absorption in the work and service of 
Christ manifested by Mr. Moody. Running 
up against this entire stranger twice in 
the same half hour, he had not wasted 



3^ 



Pastoral Memories. 



one breath in speaking of the darkness, or 
of his misstep, or of the weather, or in 
apology or excuses or ordinary courtesies. 
He had come to that city to work for the 
salvation of souls. He had no other 
thought or purpose. People thought of him 
as an evangelist, and were prepared to 
hear him speak of Christ, and expected 
him to talk on the subject of personal re- 
ligion. He simply took advantage, prompt- 
ly and positively, of his opportunities, and 
lived up to his character and reputation. 

It has been to me an illustration, 
through all the intervening years, of what 
a minister may do, and is expected to do. 
He comes into a community to do a special 
work, to which he claims to have been 
called of God. The people expect him to do 
that work. They expect him to preach the 
plain truth of God, and to talk directly to 
them on the subject of personal and fam- 
ily religion. He does not need to edge 
up to it, or apologize for doing his own 
plain duty. The physician, called into a 
home on account of sickness, goes right 
at his subject the moment he enters the 
sick room. The minister is to covet souls 
for Christ, and make it his one continuous 
and persistent purpose to win and save 
souls for the eternal life. 



"I Covet Him for Christ." 33 



The minister need not feel that lie is to 
be the exponent, to the community, of 
either social or literary or physical cul- 
ture. He need not feel called on to use 
Browning, or golf, or any other earthly 
thing to get him on good terms with the 
people. If he is a minister, let the Bible 
and the Gospel, and the supreme science 
and art of salvation make him the ready 
friend and acquaintance of every man, 
woman and child in the community. Let 
his heart be consumed with desire for 
their eternal welfare, and let him make 
this his great theme to which he needs no 
preliminary, and for which he makes no 
apology. 



THE WASHERWOMAN AND THE 
PRIEST. 



A thin-faced, hungry-eyed little girl of 
about ten years of age knocked at my study 
door. "Please, will you come to my pap's 
funeral this afternoon? The priest says he 
won't come 'cause he turned Pap out of the 
church, and he says we shan't bury him in 
our lot in the cemetery. But we haven't 
any money to pay for a grave anywhere 
else. I tell you we're in trouble. You'll 
come, won't you?" 

Of course I went. The house and yard 
were full of people, all of them Roman 
Catholics. It was not the first time I had 
conducted a funeral in a home to which 
the priest would not come because the one 
who had died was not a member in good 
standing in his church. No matter if the 
other members in the family were faith- 
ful, he would not come to them in the hour 
of bereavement and trouble. I have had 
a good many such calls, and have always 
been ready to go and tell, as plainly as 
possible, the story of God's love and grace 
in Christ. 

The mother was a little woman who, 
(34) 



The Washerwoman and the Priest. 35 



with the encumbrance of a trifling and 
worthless husband, had supported her fam- 
ily by taking in washing. She asked my 
advice as to going to the Catholic cemetery 
with the body of her husband. The priest 
had forbidden it, and the gates were locked. 
But she had a deed for a lot, and had hired 
a man to dig a grave. I told her that I 
would conduct the funeral with reading, 
speaking and prayer, but that she must 
follow her own wishes and the advice of 
her friends in the matter of the burial. 
She was very grateful and appreciative, 
and the whole company listened attentive- 
ly to the service which ended at the house. 

Then the men took up the coffin and 
carried it to the cemetery and passed it 
over the fence, and the whole company, 
men, women and children, climbed the 
fence and went to the grave and attended 
to the burial. The Catholic undertaker 
and the Protestant minister stood at the 
gate of the home and watched them. A 
little washerwoman dared to disobey and 
defy her priest! When it came to a ques- 
tion of her rights, she was ready to take 
her stand against him. The next morning 
the little girl came to my house. "The 
priest says he's going to dig Pap up, but 
our lawyer says he doesn't dast to." And 



36 Pastoral Memories. 



at last accounts he never "dast" carry out 
his threat. 

The priest was as autocratic a priest, 
too, as could be found. A Catholic neigh- 
bor, a successful and reliable business man, 
told me: "I am the President of the Board 
of Trustees of our church, but I do not 
know how things are going. I know we 
are in debt, but when I ask the priest how 
much the debt is, he answers: 'The debt 
is just so much that when we get it paid 
there will be no debt.' The people think 
I am responsible, but I know nothing and 
can do nothing." And yet the little wash- 
erwoman had, with fifty neighbors, defied 
this priest by climbing the fence into the 
cemetery when the gates were all kept 
locked by his order. 

Romanism is domineering and cruel the 
world over, but its priesthood is not having 
its way entirely. The Italian Government, 
made up of Roman Catholics, has set up 
and maintains its own rule in the city 
of Rome. France has dissolved the bond 
between Church and State. Even Alfonso 
of Spain has defied the Papal Nuncio in 
the matter of civil marriages. America is 
to-day, of all the lands, yielding the most 
implicit homage to the Pope and giving 
most delight to his heart. Her greatest 



The Washerwoman and the Priest 37 



danger to-day is from the menace of 
Popery. But let these priests, from highest 
to lowest, remember that the whole world 
is taking lessons from Italy and France, 
and that Protestant patriots and Catholic 
washerwomen and others do not intend 
that they shall have it all their own way. 

The score of times I have been called 
to minister to Roman Catholics, and the 
attendance of hundreds of them at my 
church services, have taught me that the 
wall about them is not nearly so high as 
their priests would like it to be. Prot- 
estantism is modifying the faith and the 
attitude of millions of these people. It is 
immeasurably important that this shall 
continue to be true, for if the Roman Cath- 
olic millions are to be marshaled and or- 
dered in compact mass by their priests, 
it must finally be for the extinction of 
civil and religious liberty in our Republic. 



"YOU CAN NOT SPEAK TOO PLAINLY/' 



There was great grief in one of the homes 
of our congregation. A terrible tragedy- 
had occurred. A young man had returned 
to his home late at night, from a saloon 
where he had been drinking, had gone to 
the room where his young wife lay sleep- 
ing, had fired a pistol shot into her tem- 
ple and then turned the same weapon fatal- 
ly upon himself. As the shots rang out 
in the house the startled members of the 
family hastened to the room, to find them 
both lying dead upon the bed. 

The parents were good people, members 
of the church, as had been the son in his 
boyhood. He had gone astray, had ac- 
quired dissipated habits, had attempted oc- 
casionally to reform, and when he married 
the good and beautiful young girl who was 
his wife it was hoped that he would re- 
trieve his past and live a temperate and 
correct life. He had evidently lost hope of 
doing better, and, in a fit of remorse and 
excitement, had taken the life of his wife, 
and then that of his own. 

The grief-stricken parents said to me: 
(38) 



"You Can Not Speak Too Plainly: 9 39 



"Say anything you wish. You can not speak 
too plainly for us. Point out the dangers 
of strong drink. Tell how it brought ruin 
here, and how it will do it wherever it is 
indulged in. Feel perfectly free to say 
just what you think is right, and whatever 
you think will do good." 

A great company was present for the 
funeral. The house was crowded, and hun- 
dreds stood in the great lawn. I stood at 
an open window. I traced the course of 
the young man from his boyhood and his 
early church membership, on to the time 
of learning to drink and going on in the 
way that led to his terrible double crime. 
I laid the guilt not only on himself, but 
on those who had led him astray, charged 
the ghastly crime upon the liquor traffic, 
and those conducting it, urged those who 
looked upon those two dead faces to see 
the deadly result of the saloon, and be- 
sought young men to lay to heart the les- 
son of the hour, and resolve by the divine 
grace to live lives of temperance and obedi- 
ence to the laws of God. 

After I had concluded, a brother min- 
ister took my hand, and said: "That was 
the bravest funeral discourse I ever lis- 
tened to in all my life." I know nothing, as 
I thought nothing, about the bravery of it. I 



40 



Pastoral Memories. 



only know that I tried to speak the truth, 
and I remember that the father and mother 
thanked me, with the tears running down 
their cheeks, and told me they hoped that 
some other boys might be kept from walk- 
ing in the way that leads to death. 

Oh, the devastating curse of this horrible 
liquor traffic! It must have boys to destroy 
and the tribute is being rendered to it out 
of our homes and our churches. Boys who, 
otherwise, might grow up into lives of in- 
tegrity and usefulness and honor, are being 
cut off from all bright prospects, and are 
being turned into the paths of vice and 
crime and death. Homes that might other- 
wise be bright and happy homes are being 
darkened and covered with the pall of 
death. Everywhere is the trail of the 
serpent. Broken hearts, ruined lives, 
wrecked fortunes, blighted homes, and a 
fearful train of crimes against God and 
man are to be charged to this monstrous 
evil that lurks in the heart of our nation. 

We are sometimes told: "Leave liquor 
alone and it will leave you alone." There 
never was a more false and dangerous 
adage. This young wife had left it alone. 
These parents had left it alone. It did not 
leave them alone, and there are few per- 
sons who are left alone by it, no matter 



"You Can Not Speak Too Plainly. 1 ' 41 



how sedulously it is left alone by them, 
In truth, we must not leave it alone. We 
must destroy it. Christian manhood, in the 
name of chivalry, in the spirit of philan- 
thropy, and in the love of Christ, must 
fight and destroy it, that those who are 
weak and tempted may be delivered from 
its destructive power. 

These parents were right in urging that 
the whole truth be told plainly. Christian 
people, temperance workers, ministers of 
the Gospel, and all who have an interest 
in poor humanity are called on to speak 
out plainly against this great evil. It can 
not be hated too deeply, denounced too 
strongly, warned against too forcefully. 
Let the truth be told in all the loving force- 
fulness of righteousness from the home, thg 
church, the halls of legislation, and the 
courts of the whole, broad land. 



(4) 



THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD." 



There are a great many good-hearted, 
well-meaning people who are outside the 
church. But, notwithstanding their nat- 
ural amiability, they can not know real joy 
and satisfaction until they take their place 
on the side of Christ and with his people 
in the church. When they identify them- 
selves with Christ and come into line with 
him and his work they find a heart-pleas- 
ure they never experienced before. 

I have in mind a very pleasant, smiling- 
f aced man who was remarkably cordial and 
cheery in his whole manner of speech and 
life. He had an interesting family, but not 
one of them was a member of the church, 
although they were occasional attendants. 

During a time of special religious inter- 
est one of the daughters was happily con- 
verted, received into church and baptized. 
The good work had started in the family. 
In about a year another daughter came, 
and while the parents manifested no oppo- 
sition, they showed no great pleasure in 
the matter. Another year went by, and the 
mother calm®. A new life of religious in- 
terest was now beginning to be manifest 
(42) 



"The Happiest Man in the World" 43 



in the household. Another year went by, 
and then, during some evangelistic ser- 
vices, the youngest daughter came, and 
finally the father. The whole family had 
been gathered in one by one, and each and 
all of them were happy in the new life and 
relations. 

I shall never forget an expression made 
by this man a few days after, as I met him 
on the street. As he turned to me and 
grasped me by the hand his amiable and 
friendly face was shining with a new 
warmth and brightness, and his manner 
was most cordial and sincere. "I'm the 
happiest man in the world. My wife and 
daughters and myself are all in the church, 
just where we ought to be, every one of 
us, and I can't begin to tell how glad I 
am. I want to thank you for all you've 
done for us, and I want you to know that 
I was never so happy in all my life before." 

"But if you are so happy over it now," 
I said, "how can you account for the fact 
that, during all these years you have de- 
layed in this important matter, and have 
deprived yourself of the pleasure and hap- 
piness you might have been enjoying all 
this time?" 

"That's more than I can explain," was 
his answer. "It seems strange, now that 
I look baok on it. I never felt quite satis- 



44 Pastoral Memories. 



fied. I always knew I ought to do what I 
have at last commenced. I had a pleasant 
home, but now we have, all of us, what 
makes our life and home complete, and 
I'm just the happiest man in the world." 

True religion is the need of every hu- 
man heart. Men may get along without it 
as they can get along without a good many 
other comforts, but it is a needless priva- 
tion to which they allow themselves to be 
subjected. It is not right to suffer them- 
selves to be shut out of the possession and 
enjoyment of so great a blessing. Many 
centuries ago Augustine said: "The heart 
was made for God, and it 1st restless until 
it rests in him." 

One of the saddest things in life is that 
we do not miss many of the most valuable 
things that we have never personally en- 
joyed. The illiterates man does not realize 
his privation in not being able to read. 
The savage does .not appreciate his priva- 
tion in living outside the blessings of civ- 
ilization. The untrained ear can never 
know the delight that fills the mind of the 
great musician, nor can the untrained eye 
see all the beauties that unfold themselves 
before the vision of the artist. The soul 
that has not learned to pray and commune 
with God, and believe and love and adore 
in the spiritual experiences of true religion, 



"The Happiest Man in the World." 45 



does not appreciate or know the real de- 
light and satisfaction that would be his 
portion if he would come in the way of 
God's appointment and enter upon the 
ways of the Christian life. 

Many men and women who have not 
turned to Christ may be amiable and at- 
tractive, and in their way may be con- 
tented and happy, but they have never 
tasted of the deep springs of genuine sat- 
isfaction, and they can never experience 
the best things of life until they come, at 
Christ's invitation, and accept his peace 
and joy and salvation. 



THE TERRIBLE HABIT OF DELAY. 



Well do I remember a young man, the 
son of a pious mother, who often expressed 
respect for religion and an intention to be- 
come a Christian at some time. During a 
long illness I went to see him often and 
talked to him on the subject of personal 
religion, and, with his permission, prayed 
with him. But he never went further than 
to say that he hoped and intended to be 
a Christian some time. God granted him 
a long time for repentance and conversion, 
but he was never ready. The last time I 
saw him he made the same hesitating and 
undecided answer, and so far as I ever 
could learn, he never came to a personal 
acceptance of Christ. 

Another young man of the same family 
was taken ill, a short time after, with the 
same fatal disease, and was confined to his 
home and room for many weeks before his 
death. He was as strangely undecided as 
his brother had been. With each of them 
the youth and early manhood had gcme 
by in a neglect of Christ. It was almost 
impossible, it seemed, to arouse any real 
(46) 



The Terrible Habit of Delay. 47 



spiritual interest. One afternoon I was 
told that he had only a day or two to 
live at the outside. I talked to him and 
urged on him an acceptance of Christ. Al- 
most on the very verge of the grave as 
he was, and gasping for breath, he an- 
swered: "Yes, I will, some time." 

An aged man who was often very ser- 
iously ill told me many times that when 
he should recover he would begin a new 
life and be in the church. Upon recovering 
the subject of religion would be dismissed 
from his mind until his next illness, when 
he would make the same expressions as at 
previous times. Thus he would soothe and 
quiet his conscience and thus he went on in 
his course in which he never came to a 
decision for Christ. It was impossible not 
to feel a deep interest in anil affection for 
him, and yet a great pity for him, for as 
I look back he seemed to be under an 
amiable and life-long expectation that he 
would at some time become a Christian. 

It is an exceedingly dangerous thing to 
trifle with the call of Christ and the invi- 
tations of his Word and Spirit. The be- 
ginning of Christian life is not so much 
an act of the emotions as of the will, and 
if the will has been trifled with so that 
it can not act decidedly and promptly in 



48 Pastoral Memories. 



cases of emergency, it is like an important 
cog or brake in a piece of machinery that 
will not act and that dooms the whole ma- 
chinery to ruin. 

A great many people, no doubt, have re- 
solved that they would, at some time in the 
future, give their hearts to Christ, and yet 
have gone on and on in an undecided life 
and have come to their death without turn- 
ing to him in repentance, faith and self- 
dedication. They postponed and continued 
to postpone, and died without a saving in- 
terest m Christ. They cheated themselves 
out of all that toward which the life should 
lead. Had any one else inflicted such dam- 
age upon them, tfhe enormity of the mis- 
treatment would be considered as beyond 
all computation or expression. But the 
evil was self-inflicted and under a pleasing 
self-delusion. 

Dr. Finney at one time in a sermon 
imagined Satan trying to stop a revival. 
One of his servants offered to go and tell 
the people that there was nothing in re- 
ligion. Another said that he would go and 
tell them that ChTist was n«t divine and 
the Bible not true. Another promised to 
go and tell them that there was no judg- 
ment and no future punishment. Satan 
turned from all these offers, saying that 



The Terrible HaUt of Delay. 49 



the people would know that they were false. 
Another one finally proposed to go and 
tell them that religion was important, the 
Bible true, Christ divine, judgment a cer- 
tainty, and hell a dreadful fact, but that 
there was no need to be in haste. He was 
sent, for Satan well knew that there was 
no surer way to destroy men's souls than 
by means of the pleasing delusion that 
Christ may be accepted at any time, how- 
ever many times he may be trifled with 
and rejected. 

Those who have been pastors know that 
the matter of central importance in deal- 
ing with human souls is to bring them to 
a prompt decision for Christ instead of 
allowing them to go on, under the delusion 
of Satan, rejecting and insulting Christ 
and driving him from their souls, under 
the fiction that they will feel like accept- 
ing him some time after they have hard- 
ened themselves into the desperate habit 
of expelling him and keeping him expelled 
from their hearts. 



WAITING FOR A REVIVAL. 

A young man met me one morning, and 
after a short conversation said, in a very 
amiable and winning way: "I have made 
up my mind to be a Christian, and I am 
just waiting for you to get up a revival, 
and as soon as it is going on I shall be 
ready to fall in with the rest." Of course, 
it seemed to him that this was a good 
deal of a concession and that he had gone 
about as far as he could be expected to 
under the circumstances. I tried to make 
him realize that it was a matter for individ- 
ual earnestness and for personal decision, 
but he was not in the mood for anything 
more positive than he had announced. 
Soon after I lost sight of him, and I have 
never heard of him since. I do not know 
whether he ever became a Christian. I 
hope that in time of a revival, or at some 
other time, God's Spirit made him a new 
creature, for he was a young man whom, 
looking upon, I loved. 

Of course, his idea of a revival was de- 
fective. He thought of it and spoke of 
it as something to be manufactured by 
Christian people. It can not be made to 
(50) 



Waiting For a Revival. 51 



order. It can not be arranged for as one 
may arrange for the celebration of some 
anniversary. It is a bestowal of the di- 
vine grace. It comes from above. True, 
however, it is granted to those who seek 
and pray and devote themselves to God 
and his kingdom, and may be had by those 
who humbly implore it at the throne of 
grace. But men may not "get it up/' and 
that which is man-made can not ensure 
God's blessing. We need, all of us, in 
word and thought, to avoid the mistake 
of this young man in thinking that a re- 
vival may be made to order. 

If that young man could have been led 
to Christ that day it would have been a 
revival, in every real sense of the word, 
for him, just as surely as if thousands 
were being converted at the same time 
all about him. The Ethiopian eunuch was 
as surely and as happily converted, out in 
the wilderness, with Philip, as if he had 
been one of the three thousands converted 
on the day of Pentecost, at Jerusalem, un- 
der the ministry of all the apostles. 

No person is saved, even in time of great 
and wide-sweeping revival, until the per- 
sonal choice of Christ as Savior is made, 
and that choice can be made by an indi- 
vidual even if no other person is seeking 



52 



Pastoral Memories. 



Christ at the time. A great many per- 
sons have been converted and added to 
the church in time of revival, and an ex- 
amination of the rolls of the churches, 
showing that a large proportion of the 
members have been added at such times, 
would impress upon our minds the fact 
that God has blessed his churches richly 
on such occasions. But a great many per- 
sons have accepted Christ and have come 
into his church independently of what oth- 
ers were doing at the time. 

The firsts person whom I welcomed pub- 
licly into the church was a young man 
who came alone to be received by the Ses- 
sion and who stood alone to make his 
confession of Christ. Since that day I 
have publicly welcomed many groups of 
ten, twenty, thirty, or forty, but I do not 
know that any one of those persons had 
a brighter experience or gave clearer tes- 
timony for Christ than did this glad- 
hearted and clear-minded young man who 
came without waiting for a revival, be- 
cause he felt convinced that it was his 
privilege and duty to come out for Christ 
just as he did. 

So infinitely important is it that Christ 
shall be personally and promptly accepted 
that no one should wait for any one else, 



Waiting For a Revival. 53 



but should act individually and for eter- 
nity. Let each one act with cheerful alac- 
rity that he may hear those words for 
himself, once spoken by Christ to Zac- 
cheus: "This day is salvation come to this 
house." 



"A MIGHTY NICE FUNERAL." 

The barkeeper in a saloon of the West- 
ern village had died. He was no better 
nor worse than the common run of his 
class. He sold whisky for his employer 
for what money there was in it for him. 
He would probably have been glad to do 
something better had employment opened 
up to him, and would willingly have done 
something worse, in all likelihood, had he 
been solicited and paid for it. The saloon- 
keeper said he was a good fellow, that he 
had stuck to his work and had done all 
he could have expected from him. The 
endorsement was all that could be asked, 
such as it was. 

I had seen drinking men congregating 
at this saloon as flies gather around the 
bung-hole of a molasses barrel. I had 
known of all the laws being violated there, 
and had felt stirred to the depths of my 
soul with indignation over the iniquities 
that had characterized the place. And it 
was known far and wide. One day I had 
seen a wagon standing in front of the sa- 
loon door, and had watched men pouring 
bad whisky through a funnel down the 
(54) 



"A Mighty Nice Funeral." 55 



mouth and throat of an unconscious man 
who had been bitten by a rattlesnake in 
a harvest field twelve miles out in the 
country. He was already swollen and black 
with the rattlesnake poison, and, however 
much harm the whisky did him, it did not 
do him much good, for he died that night. 
And many a worse presence than the rattle- 
snake had been lured into men's brains 
by means of this saloon's whisky from time 
to time. 

The proprietor asked me to conduct the 
barkeeper's funeral and to open the church 
for it. He said that the man had no home 
of his own, or relatives, and that he was 
responsible for him, and that he wanted 
to "give him a good send-off." I con- 
sented. The church was crowded. All the 
saloons of the place closed for the hour, 
and the proprietors, barkeepers and patrons 
found time to come and pay their respects 
and listen to a sermon which had as much 
of solemn and warning truth as I knew 
how to crowd into it. They were attentive 
and showed all outward propriety, and, the 
next day, the little Norwegian undertaker 
took my hand and smiled benignly and 
announced the opinion that "We had a 
mighty nice funeral." 

As one looks back over his ministry with 



56 Pastoral Memories. 



its record of hundreds or thousands of 
funerals he wonders how much good he was 
ever permitted to accomplish on such oc- 
casions. They have been to him solemn 
and trying experiences in which he did his 
best to produce or to deepen spiritual im- 
pressions. He remembers speaking many 
a tender and earnest word of instruction, 
comfort and exhortation, but many of them, 
he fears, were fruitless of lasting results. 
The occasion which meant so much to him, 
oftentimes, as a spiritual opportunity, was 
to some only "a good send-off," and to 
others only "a mighty nice funeral." 

But the minister does not create the cir- 
cumstances. Providentially he has a part 
in the service, and it is for him to improve 
his opportunity to the best of his ability. 
He may be brought into friendly relations 
with a family here, and another there that, 
but for him, would have no spiritual ad- 
viser, and no relation with the Church 
whatsoever. In many such cases I have 
put families on my visiting list, and called 
to see them statedly for years, without ever 
seeing one of them enter the church doors. 
They were friendly, and were glad to see 
me apparently, and I have had the oppor- 
tunity to do them good. 

Funerals are difficult and trying occasions 



"A Mighty Nice Funeral." 57 



for ministers. Let them be conducted care- 
fully and tenderly, however, and good may 
result in many cases, apparently unprom- 
ising. I remember many such as the re- 
sult of which I was permitted to lead in- 
dividuals and families to Christ, and to a 
place in his Church. 



(5) 



A FAITH-CURB EXPERIMENT. 



Early one winter morning a sleigh drew 
up at the gate of the parsonage and a 
messenger brought me an importunate re- 
quest to come to a home some miles away. 
The family was not one belonging to my 
congregation, although I had some slight 
acquaintance with some of its members. 
However, they knew me, and as the mother 
was ill and had been ill for some weeks 
and I was invited to visit them, I did so 
cheerfully and without hesitation. 

Ushered into the sick-room, I endeavored 
to lead the conversation into profitable 
channels of Christian comfort and consola- 
tion and spoke with all good cheer pos- 
sible. The husband seemed several times 
to be on the point of making some formal 
announcement and, at length, at what 
seemed to him a fitting point in the conver- 
sation, spoke as follows: "You see it is 
just this way. She's been sick a good while 
and we've been reading a good deal about 
faith cures, and we just concluded that 
we'd try an experiment and, so, to help it 
along, we sent for you to-day." 
(58) 



A Faith-Cure Experiment. 59 



Of course I explained that I was not a 
faith-cure experimenter; that I believed in 
faith and works; that praying in case of 
sickness went to the best advantage hand 
in hand with skilled physicians and trained 
nurses; but that I was willing and glad to 
pray with them that God's blessing might 
rest upon the means employed and that, if 
it were his will, she might recover from her 
sickness. We united in prayer, and the 
prayer was offered in all possible faith and 
fervency. After a time the husband went 
out of the room and the wife took advan- 
tage of the opportunity to say to me: "I 
do not believe in doing without a doctor, 
and I don't think he would want any faith- 
cure experiments tried on him." 

The visit closed in due time and in due 
form. In a few weeks the word came to me 
that the experiment had come to an end. 
As far as faith-cure, or, for that matter, 
any sort of cure was concerned, it had been 
a complete failure. The poor, tired woman 
had gone to her long rest and the faith-cure 
experimenter went about the streets. 

The story is in line with many others 
that tell of sickness unrelieved and death 
unaverted under the thoughtless and 
treacherous theories and the mistaken 
ministrations of those who would meet dis- 



60 Pastoral Memories. 



ease in a way unwarranted by God's Word 
or the leadings of sound sense or science. 
We believe in prayer, and increasingly we 
believe in it when we approach God in the 
way and under the conditions he lays down 
for our guidance. But we do not believe 
that we can trample under foot the teach- 
ings of science and good sense and indulge 
in the rhapsodies and false enthusiasms or 
the excitements of fanatical ignorance and 
expect a satisfactory outcome in cases of 
real difficulty. 

There have been cases where the sick- 
ness was imaginary, or superinduced by a 
nervous condition from which the patient 
needed to be aroused. In some such cases, 
without medicine or a physician, a wise 
friend, a devout enthusiast, or even a 
shrewd charlatan may be successful in in- 
terrupting the abnormal condition. In 
cases of real sickness, however, one would 
better keep out of the hands of the dis- 
ciples of Alexander Dowie or Mary Eddy, 
or of even the good faith-curists who> pray 
and leave the patient to groan and die. 

In scarcely any field have there been 
more delusions and impostures than in 
that of physical faith healing. The Scrip- 
tures tell us of miracles wrought by Christ 
and his inspired apostles, and upon these 



A Faith-Cure Experiment. 61 



actual occurrences enthusiasts on the one 
hand and sharpers on the other have 
worked upon the hopes and fears of the 
innocent and suffering, oftentimes to their 
great injury. Faith has its true province. 
Faith experimenting is to be deprecated. 



MY FIRST MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 

It was the first marriage ceremony I had 
been called on to perform and, consequent- 
ly, I was somewhat apprehensive as to 
my ability to go through the service prop- 
erly. But I had ample time for prepara- 
tion during my horseback ride of ten miles 
over a Western prairie with the thermom- 
eter at twenty degrees below zero on start- 
ing in the morning. 

Arriving at the home, I found a large 
company assembled, filling several rooms, 
consisting of the family and friends of the 
young couple, and all of them entire stran- 
gers to me except the brother who had on 
the preceding day invited my attendance. 
The service was finished and the young 
people were warmly congratulated by those 
present. 

At this point wine was served* which I, 
so far as I could see, was the only one to 
decline. The mother approached me, say- 
ing, "Will you not drink a glass of wine 
to the health of the bride ?" It was an em- 
barrassing moment to me, but I replied: 
"Madam, no one can be more sincere in 
wishing all the best blessings of this life 
(62) 



My First Marriage Ceremony. 63 



to the young couple, but if you will oblige 
me, I will drink a glass of water." A 
look of displeasure clouded her face, but 
this soon passed away; the painful silence 
was broken; the festivities, including a fine 
dinner, proceeded, and I started homeward 
on my long and solitary ride. 

How it came about I never knew, but I 
was told by several persons that evening in 
my home village that they had heard of 
my refusing to touch wine at the wedding, 
and I had, then and on subsequent occa- 
sions, many quiet expressions of kind ap- 
proval. My sentiments had plainly been 
spoken in the pulpit, and now my social 
attitude had been defined and I had no dif- 
ficulty, henceforth, in making known my 
position as to this matter. 

I can say to-day, as I think most other 
ministers can, that no one had ever seen 
me touch a social glass of wine under any 
circumstances. I had known, and since 
then I have known, a few ministers who 
were not thus careful as to their influence, 
but I had resolved that, come what might, 
I would be rigidly and totally abstinent 
under all circumstances. Had I not taken 
the position I did, at the very outset, I 
would have greatly injured myself and the 
cause of Christ, and should have grieved 



64 Pastoral Memories. 



many persons with whom I had never 
spoken on the subject of temperance, but 
who now took occasion to commend me. 

This may seem like a comparatively 
trivial incident, but as I conceived it then 
and as I look at it now, it was greatly im- 
portant. Life is made up of little things, 
and young Christians in general as well 
as young ministers in particular, can not 
be too particular in all the little things 
of social life that involve moral principle 
and personal influence. By one act or word 
one may define his position as on the right 
side or the wrong, and when a wrong thing 
has been done, it will take a great deal 
to neutralize and correct it. 

The world and the Church expect min- 
isters and other Christian leaders to set a 
good example. They may occasion a little 
surprise, sometimes, by rigid adherence to 
strict rules, but, after all, they will win the 
respect of all by such a course. The self- 
indulgent minister throws away his influ- 
ence. He is expected to be strict and, while 
he is this, he can be kind and friendly and 
sympathetic. 

Many a time I have turned down my 
glasses at banquets and have refused wine 
in private and in public, but I never have, 
on any such occasion, so far as I have ever 



My First Marriage Ceremony. 65 



been led to know, lost the good will or 
respect of any person by so doing. My 
experience has been that quite the opposite 
results have been attained. I am quite 
sure that a minister is expected to be a 
very careful and exemplary man. 



INFANT BAPTISM. 

I have been privileged to administer bap- 
tism to hundreds of infant children, and 
the longer I live the more thoroughly as- 
sured I am of the spiritual importance and 
Scripturalness of this sacrament. It is just 
such a service as is calculated to impress 
the minds and hearts of the parents very 
deeply, be the avenue for the entrance into 
their souls of gracious impressions from 
the Holy Spirit, and be the means under 
God of stimulating them to do all in their 
power to start the children's feet in the 
ways of life and obedience to God. That 
it has been thus blessed to parents in all 
ages and lands is unquestionably true. 

Deep and strong in the hearts of most 
parents is an affectionate solicitude for the 
welfare of their children. In the case of 
those who are religious, and who have re- 
gard to the spiritual interests and eternal 
well-being of their little ones, this love 
will manifest itself in seeking to bring 
them into that relationship with God which 
will secure to them the assurances of eter- 
nal salvation. They will give them to God 

( 60 ) 



Infant Baptism. 



67 



with their earliest breath, will pray for them 
and pray with them, and will carefully 
train them in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord. 

The sacrament has also been blessed to 
the children in many ways. Certainly 
many children are greatly impressed, when, 
seeing other children baptized, they are 
told that they also received baptism in 
their early infancy. I was talking to a 
class of children at one time, telling them 
that they had doubtless been baptized when 
very young, and explaining to them that 
their parents meant by it that they greatly 
wished them to be God's owe children for 
life. It appeared that one of them had not 
been baptized. Her mother told me that 
the little girl questioned ner about it, on 
coming home, and on being told that her 
baptism had been neglected, sue cried most 
bitterly for a long time. But even "the 
things that were not'' were in this case 
blessed to her by the Spirit of God, for in 
a short time she was led to give herself to 
Christ, united with the church and was 
baptized. 

A Roman Catholic father and mother 
brought their sick child to me one morning 
very early, asking me to baptize it, as they 
feared it might die. I did as they wished, 



68 Pastoral Memories. 



but assured them that I did not think bap- 
tism, of itself, saving, nor the absence of it 
destructive. The father said: "I think it 
absolutely necessary, and I am not going lo 
run the risk of the child being lost. I want 
it baptized, and now we are going right to 
the doctor." As Presbyterians we believe 
that all children dying in infancy are saved. 
We do not baptize them to insure them 
from being lost. But we do believe that 
it is divinely instituted, and that it is and 
has been a great means of grace to believ- 
ing parents and to their children. 

A Baptist father and mother came to me 
with their little child one Sabbath after- 
noon and asked me to baptize it. They 
were, both of them, members of the Bap- 
tist Church, only a few squares away, but 
they wished to devote the little one to 
Christ in a way for which there was no 
provision in their Church, and had told 
their pastor of their intention in the mat- 
ter. I told him of it myself, afterwards, 
so there was no ill-feeling. But I was im- 
pressed by the thought that many parents 
must feel a great lack in the churches 
which have no place in their life for the 
baptism and dedication of the little ones to 
Christ. 

Our Presbyterian people, in general, have 



Infant Baptism. 69 



intelligent and Scriptural ideas in refer- 
ence to this sacrament. They consider it 
their duty to obey God in accepting for 
their children this seal of the covenant. 
They do not think of it as a charm con- 
ferring exemption from future ills. They 
do not regard it as, in itself, procuring sal- 
vation. But they do rejoice that the place 
of the child is defined in me Christian 
Church as it is in the home, and they de- 
sire to be faithful to the discharge of their 
duty and the acceptance of their privilege 
for the little ones placed in their keeping 
by the heavenly Father. Holding Scrip- 
tural views as to this matter, we believe 
that there are none who should be moie 
zealous than ourselves in accepting bap- 
tism and all its benefits for our dearly be- 
loved children. 



'ONLY A SUICIDE." 



My doorbell rang and the undertaker was 
ushered into my study late one Saturday 
evening. He had come, as I at once sur- 
mised, on an errand like those which had 
brought us often together. 

"I wish you would come to-morrow 
morning and hold a short funeral service 
at the chapel of my undertaking establisli- 
ment. It is to be at eight o'clock. There 
will be very few there. It is only a sui- 
cide, and a stranger, but we want to show 
him what respect we can, and as it is 
proper to have a service, I wish you would 
come and conduct it." 

A few of us gathered in the little room 
the next morning. A young man lay in his 
coffin before us. It was a handsome face, 
but bearing the marks of dissipation, and 
right in the center of his forehead was 
the mark left by the bullet as it had sped 
on its fatal errand into his brain to hush 
it into silence forever. What we had to 
say was for the admonition of the little 
company. There was no relative present, 
nor one who had any personal acquaint- 
(70) 



"Only a Suicide." 



71 



ance with the dead man. His body had 
been identified and, as the result of cor- 
respondence, was to be sent away. So we 
read and spoke briefly and prayed that we 
might none of us yield to temptations to 
cast away our own lives. Over the dead 
body and beside the coffin of him who was 
"only a suicide" we prayed that we might, 
all of us, do ourselves no harm. 

Poor George! Poor, unhappy, self-de- 
stroying boy! We have never known his 
history. We never learned what led 
him to his rash act, but suppose that it 
was only the culmination of a series of 
rash acts that had made up a rash life. 
He had no doubt become involved in un- 
happy consequences of a wrong course and, 
despairing of a successful way out, had 
plunged in deeper and drawn upon his life 
the darkest consequences which he could 
possibly compass. 

There are more suicides than those who, 
in one desperate act, put a bullet into the 
brain or a knife into the heart. We have 
known many persons who have destroyed 
themselves. They have been actual sui- 
cides, although not considered such in the 
estimation of all of their friends. There 
was . a bright young man who broke away 
from the teaching of good parents and the 



72 



Pastoral Memories. 



restraints of a Christian home and the in- 
fluences of the Church of Christ, and ran 
a course of intemperance. His splendid 
physical health was ruined, his prospects 
of earthly success were dashed to the 
ground, his earthly career cut short so that 
his sun went down while it was yet day. 
On his gravestone might be cut the words: 
"Only a suicide." 

There was a winsome young girl who 
lived a short and giddy life, so frivolous 
in her way of living, so thoughtless, bo 
pleasure seeking that she left the best and 
most substantial elements out of her heart 
and mind and brought upon herself a con- 
dition which made her the easy victim of 
disease and led her, in her young woman- 
hood, to an untimely grave. Many sor- 
rowed over her. Alas, there are so many 
who follow in her footsteps and dance 
their wayward course, flightily as fireflies, 
to a grave over which might be placed the 
sad words: "Only a suicide." 

Then there was a man who, thoughtful 
and studious and scientific as he held him- 
self to be, rejected the influences of re- 
ligious faith, steeled his heart against the 
truth of the Gospel and the Spirit of God, 
and went on, unbelieving, to the very end 
of life. No crime did he commit. Many 



"Only a Suicide." 



73 



good things he did. Many true things he 
said. But he had no place in his heart for 
the Savior who came that we might have 
life and that we might have it more abund- 
antly, and without whom we have no share 
in the life that is spiritual and everlasting. 
Alas that such a man should commit sui- 
cide by keeping out of his heart and life 
the living and life-giving Son of God. 

Yes, we have known many men and 
women who, in lives of sin and dissipation, 
have gone down to the grave just as surely 
self-destroyed as if they had drawn a 
weapon fatally against the citadel of their 
physical existence. And we have known 
men and women who have persisted in 
rejecting Jesus Christ, of whom we read 
that "he that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth 
on him." Wretched King Saul, the suicide, 
could say: "I have played the fool and 
erred exceedingly," and so could it be said 
of many a one, who, being "only a sui- 
cide," has lived in dissipation or in unbe- 
lief and gone to a grave darkened by the 
gloomiest of shadows. 



(6) 



SOME TEACHERS I HAVE KNOWN. 

Among the many noble men and women 
with whom I have been associated in my 
pastorates none have been more helpful, or 
have shown themselves more devoted to the 
cause of Christ, than have many teachers, 
both men and women, in public schools 
and in other institutions. It has been to 
me a source of constant gratification to 
note the large proportion of our teachers 
who are members of our evangelical 
churches and who show that they are Chris- 
tians by their daily walk and conversa- 
tion. 

The teacher's profession is not attractive 
to godless people. Those who are irre- 
ligious are, usually, lacking in those ele- 
ments of character which incline one to, 
or adapt one for success in, the work of 
teaching and training children and young 
people. Of course, some godless people, 
from an intellectual impulse or for finan- 
cial gain, may be led for a time to be teach- 
ers, but such persons lack the real elements 
that make the work an artistic delight to 
them or that make them successful. The 
real teacher awakens Intellect and heart 
(74) 



Some Teachers I Have Known. 75 



and conscience, directs the will, shapes the 
character and molds the life, and unless 
there is something of a spiritual sensitive- 
ness and ambition, there is sure to be worse 
than failure. 

In my first experience as a young min- 
ister in a Western frontier village I was 
happily associated with a Christian teacher 
as my most intimate friend. His wife and 
sister were engaged with him in the work, 
and I learned anew from them how Chris- 
tian teachers may develop and modify and 
soften the mind of a community through 
work with and for the children. 

In nearly every church of which I have 
been pastor many of my most useful work- 
ers, such as teachers in the Sabbath-school, 
have been public-school teachers, and in 
nearly every session with which I have 
been associated there have been men who 
have been engaged in some line of active 
educational activity. Superintendents of 
schools, principals of high schools and 
grade teachers have been heartily identified 
with the work of the church, and have 
been chosen, from their conspicuous quali- 
ties of mind and character, to serve in offi- 
cial positions. 

I would like to bear tribute, here and 
now, to these individual teachers, for the 



76 Pastoral Memories. 



help and encouragement they have been to 
me, in themselves and as representatives 
of a great army of intelligent, faithful, 
patient and devoted men and women, who 
are doing a work in the upbuilding and es- 
tablishing of this ^nation for which they 
have all too little credit. I believe in words 
of appreciation and praise as extended to 
this hardworking, gentle and wise body of 
teachers. Side by side with the Church 
they arei working to eliminate evil and to 
develop what is good. May we never under- 
estimate them or fail to co-operate with 
them. May their influence ever continue to 
be, as, for the most part, it has always 
been in the past, on the side of truth and 
purity and righteousness and patriotism 
and goodness. 

Let any one eliminate from his life, if 
that were possible,* the influences that have 
come to him from his teachers, and he 
would find himself bereft of many a gen- 
erous impulse, many a noble ambition, 
many a healthful tendency, many a fruit- 
ful idea, many a proper longing and many 
a high purpose in life. The teacher is not 
a mere hireling, nor skilled laborer. Teach- 
ing is more than a profession. The true 
teacher is born, not made, and, after being 



Some Teachers I Have Known. 77 



born, is called to the work in some such 
way as the minister is called to his spiritual 
service. For the teacher, the minister and 
the parent deal with souls and with char- 
acter in a work that tells for eternity. 



PROFANE SWEARING. 

One of the best men I ever knew, a pray- 
ing, godly, sincere elder, who was as faith- 
ful in Christian life as any man with whom 
I ever had to do # told me once that he was 
constantly fearful that he might be be- 
trayed into an outburst of temper and the 
use of profane language. He told me that 
he had formed the habit in his boyhood arid 
that, although he had striven against it 
even before his conversion, he had some- 
times given way to it in trying circum- 
stances and had been made to feel much 
shame and sorrow. Since his conversion 
he had been free from it, but was always 
fearful lest he might, even like Simon 
Peter, shame himself and his Lord in some 
time of great temptation. 

I never knew of this good man falling 
under the power of his old habit and I be- 
lieve that God, before whom he walked 
softly, delivered him even to the hour of 
his death. But I know he had much sor- 
row and fearfulness of heart over his weak- 
ness, as though he carried about with him 
a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan 
(78) 



Profane Swearing. 



79 



to buffet him. God's grace was sufficient 
to him because he solely trusted in that 
grace and had no confidence in himself. 

The use of profane language is a ter- 
rible habit. God saw fit, in giving ten com- 
mandments, to devote one of them ex- 
clusively to this, and there is no stronger 
language used in any of the ten in denun- 
ciation of any sin. God does not and will 
not hold him guiltless who takes his name 
in vain. The habit dishonors God and de- 
grades the one who is guilty of it. It 
marks the one who indulges in it as ir- 
reverent and insolent. He does not hesi- 
tate to insult God. The habit may be ac- 
quired before the enormity of it is under- 
stood and, like any other habit, it is hard to 
overcome. 

A most godly and successful minister who 
has recently gone to his reward told me 
once, when we were both students, that one 
thing which made him shrink back from 
the thought of entering the sacred office 
was that, in his early life he had been 
in the habit of using profane language, 
and he feared that he might, at some time, 
be betrayed into its use. "I would sooner 
die than be guilty of such a thing," he 
said, "and at times I fear that I ought 



89 



Pastoral Memories. 



never to venture to be a minister." But 
God, who made an eminently useful apostle 
out of Simon Peter, and delivered him ex- 
cept on one occasion from relapsing into 
this sin, kept this young man, and he ac- 
quired the character and influence of an 
eminently spiritual and beautiful life. He 
was a very humble man and God made him, 
in marked measure, useful and powerful 
in building up the cause of the Savior 
whom he loved. 

Another minister who passed away only 
a few years ago had the same trial and 
sorrow. He had grown up into mature 
life, engaged in business, before he was 
converted, and he had acquired a ready 
facility in using profane language. He gave 
a sorrowful exhibition of it at one time 
in my presence, when we were students. 
Another person had angered him, and he 
broke out into a torrent of profane in- 
vective. In an hour or so he came to my 
room, his eyes red with weeping, to ask 
my forgiveness for having spoken so in my 
presence. On my intimation that the of- 
fense against myself was the least of it, 
he exclaimed: "Oh, I have been on my 
knees before God in penitence, asking his 
forgiveness." I never knew of his being 



Profane Swearing. 81 



betrayed into the sin again, and many years 
of self-denying and consecrated labor in 
home and foreign and city mission work 
proved the sincerity of his deep devotion 
to his Lord and Savior. 

I once heard a great lecturer make a 
reference to profanity which was wilfully 
misconstrued by some light-hearted young 
men and greeted with derisive laughter. 
In a moment the lecturer was aflame. Ad- 
vancing to the very edge of the platform, he 
raised his hand and the great audience of 
thousands of people grew bo quiet that a 
pin drop could have been heard anywhere 
in the hall. "Gentlemen, I am in earnest. 
No good man will suffer himself to be 
guilty of the vice and crime of taking the 
holy name of God in vain." And then he 
quoted Cowper's lines: 

"It chills my blood to hear the blest Su- 
preme 

Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme. 
Maintain your rank; vulgarity despise; 
To swear is neither brave, polite nor wise." 

The rest of the lecture is forgotten. I 

believe that many have remembered the 
courageous and notable rebuke that was 



82 



Pastoral Memories. 



administered that evening to those who 
tried to make a mock at sin. 

We have spoken as we have about this 
sin of profanity in the earnest desire to 
deter young men and boys from falling into 
a terrible habit. Any sensible man, if he 
have even, the instincts of an ordinary gen- 
tleman, will be ashamed of such a contempt- 
ible vice. If he becomes a Christian, he 
will lament with tears and strong crying 
that he ever permitted himself to train his 
tongue to shame his soul and insult his 
Lord. Let each one of the commandments 
be rigidly obeyed and let not that one be 
counted as least which says: "Thou shalt 
not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain: for the Lord will not hold him 
guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 



THE COMFORT OP CHRIST. 

The religion of our Lord Jesus Christ is 
the central and supreme source of com- 
fort to his children in times of trial and 
sorrow. Living in a world where troubles 
and griefs are the portion of even the best, 
and where all hearts know what it is to 
mourn over losses and bereavements, it is 
of immeasurable satisfaction that God's 
people know where to go for comfort. But 
there are some who have not acquainted 
themselves with God so as to be at peace, 
and with them his consolations are but 
small. 

A young mother had been bereaved by 
the death of her little babe, and was in- 
consolable in her grief. During the funeral 
service, in which God's most precious and 
comforting words were read, and in which 
earnest prayer was made for her comfort- 
ing, she sat moaning and sobbing, and 
could not have heard a word that was said. 
At the close of the service some one said 
to me: "How sorry I am for her. Poor 
thing, she knows nothing of the comfort 
of the Gospel. She has never given her- 
(83) 



84 



Pastoral Memories. 



self to Christ, and she does not know how 
to take his help into her heart." 

I had been called at another time to con- 
duct the funeral of a beautiful little child, 
but this time it was in a Christian home, 
where Christ was a Irving, abiding pres- 
ence. After I had spoken of the sweet and 
comforting consolations of the Gospel as 
they came to those whose little ones had 
been gathered into the fold and into the 
very arms of the Good Shepherd, the father 
arose, by the side of the little casket, ana 
made a most tender and beautiful expres- 
sion of faith in Christ, and of their will- 
ingness to trust their darling child to his 
keeping. The sorrow of the separation was 
with them, and their hearts were torn by 
the great sorrow, but there was present 
with them the peace of God, which passed 
all understanding. When sorrows come it 
is an infinite comfort if we have Jesus in 
the home to help us bear them. 

I was with a father at the deathbed of 
his little son. We were kneeling together 
as the last breath was drawn and the spirit 
went out unto God, who gave it. No one 
else was present, but we were looking to 
God for grace to bear the sorrowful af- 
fliction. Just then the door of the room 



The Comfort of Christ. 



85 



opened and a kind-hearted neighbor walked 
in. Seeing that the change had come, and 
noting the griefful sobbing of the father, 
she laid her hand upon his shoulder and 

said: "Oh, Bro. B , this is what tries 

one's faith." Why could she not have said 
something else? Why could she not have 
spoken some word of faith and comfort 
rather than give expression to that wail 
of despair? She did not know any better, 
but there are some trustful souls that know 
how to attract the gaze of those who are 
sinking to Christ who stands upon the 
waves for their comfort and deliverance. 

Severe as is the loss of loved ones, the 
loss of one's health is a trial that touches 
one to the very quick. It was this that 
was made the culminating test in the per- 
secution of Job. But many of God's dear 
children are able to praise him even in 
the very midst of the fire of this trial, and 
to set examples of spiritual submission and 
resignation that are object lessons to 
teach the power of God's sustaining grace. 

A poor woman had been for four years 
confined to her bed with an illness which 
had not only made her helpless, but which 
had been excruciatingly painful. She said 
to me: "If I had been told at the begin- 



86 



Pastoral Memories. 



ning of it that I should be kept here for 
four long years, I just could not have en- 
dured it. But God is better to us than 
we know. He does not let us see into the 
future. We are to live just one day at a 
time, and his grace is sufficient each day 
as the day comes and goes. So I do not 
look forward. I simply trust him day by 
day." No more trustful expression could 
have been made. No sweeter spirit could- 
have been possessed than she manifested. 
She could not have been patient and calm 
as she was had it not been for the rest- 
ful upholding of the everlasting arms. She 
knew whom she believed. She had ex- 
perienced in early life his saving grace, 
and all through the wearisome years of 
her distressing illness she was continuing 
to experience his keeping grace, as the 
Lord strengthened her upon the bed of 
languishing and made all her bed in her 
sickness. 

The longer I live the surer I am that it 
is wisest and best for one to become ac- 
quainted with Jesus Christ as his own per- 
sonal Savior very early in life. Then as 
the trials of life come on they will lead 
him to Christ for help and guidance and 
consolation, instead of driving him out 



The Comfort of Christ. 87 



into the darkness of bewilderment and 
doubt. As the waves rise and beat, and 
the winds howl and shriek about him, he 
will remember that Christ is with him in 
the ship, and before the storm grows too 
turbulent the voice of the Savior will com- 
mand the raging elements of life and soul 
to be at peace. Every soul needs Christ. 
Let him be chosen as friend and Savior 
in early childhood, and his peace and con- 
solations will be a living presence to 
sweeten all life's bitterness and to assuage 
all life's distresses and woes. 



MY FRIEND, THE ENGINEER. 

I remember a ride on an engine, years 
ago, seated beside the engineer, who had 
invited me to a place in his cab. I was 
shown all courtesy and was treated to some 
particularly rapid riding. I did not know 
very much about an engine, but that was 
not necessary. My friend knew all about 
it. As he came to hear me preach twice 
every Sabbath, I did not need to be a me- 
chanical expert in order to win his regard. 
He respected me as a minister, and I re- 
spected him as an engineer, and as we 
each tried to do our best in our own way, 
there was a substantial and unquestioned 
basis for mutual respect. I had the joy of 
receiving him and his wife into the church 
and of baptizing all their children. I had, 
furthermore, the pleasure of ordaining and 
installing him as a deacon. Years after I 
had removed to another city I met my 
friend. He leaned down from his engine 
to grasp my hand and to say, "I am just 
where you left me, trying to do the beet 
I can." He was a faithful and good man. 
I have seen him in trying circumstance*. 
One day the train which he was driving 
U8) 



My Friend, the Engineer. 89 



and in which I was riding ran over two 
little children and stopped until the acci- 
dent could be investigated. He was en- 
tirely blameless. He was crying bitterly. 
I took him by the hands and tried to com- 
fort him. A short time ago he was killed 
in his cab by the break of some machinery. 
I sorrowed over him, for I loved him as 
a true, manly, Christian man. 

I knew and loved as a personal friend 
another engineer, who was a Presbyterian 
elder in the city where he made his home. 
I liked well to ride in the train when bs 
was in the cab. I often told him that I 
felt safer when I knew he had the reins 
in his hands. But this good man lost hig 
life in the discharge of his duty. He went 
down with his engine through a flood- 
weakened bridge. It was not through any 
lack of watchfulness or care on his part, 
but he had partially checked his train, and 
no life but his own was lost. The church 
and the world lost a valuable life when 
this man was called away. 

But even in this very dangerous position 
some men go through a long lifetime witn- 
out loss or injury. An engineer, a mem- 
ber of my church, told me, "I have made 
my regular runs, without any loss of time, 
for twenty years, and during all that time 



(7) 



90 



Pastoral Memories. 



I have never even broken a bar out of my 
pilot." But it is not so with many. Thou- 
sands of men in the various departments oi 
the railroads of our country are killed 
every year. Seated in our comfortable 
day coaches and palace cars, we forget the 
men who, away up in front, are in mighty 
and constant peril. Watchful, intrepid, 
skillful, self-sacrificing, they occupy the 
post of danger and of honor in these great 
trains that speed across the continent. 

Many of these men are Christians and 
in our churches. The Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association finds a most appropriate 
and encouraging field for its energies 
among these hardy and heroic men of our 
railroads. The great railroad corporations 
find that it pays them to develop religious 
influences along their lines. Men are bet- 
ter men, everywhere and always, for being 
Christians. Who has a better right to, and 
a greater need for, all that is helpful and 
saving in the holy religion of Jesus Christ, 
than these young men whose lives are in 
such constant peril? 

There is a great army of railroad men 
in our country. Hundreds of thousands 
are in its ranks. I have been much with 
many of them, and have found many of my 
best and most trusted friends among them. 



My Friend, the Engineer. 91 



I have never pretended to know much aboui 
the mechanism of the engine, and would 
make a poor show in auditing the books 
of a great office. But as I have tried to 
preach to the men who did understand all 
about such matters, their principal con- 
cern was for me to tell them in plain and 
loving words the great truths of the saving 
love of God in Jesus Christ for those who 
trust themselves to him as their Savior. 

Starting out one stormy night to take 
a train, I fell in with the train dispatcher, 
who was to go on duty in a few minutes. 
"You are going," he said, "and I am to 
stay. All through the night I shall know 
where you are. I shall watch over you 
and, as well as I can, take care of you/' 
So may we remember, in all our journey- 
ings, that the heavenly Father's eye is on 
us and his care over us, and may he keep 
us all in all our ways till all our goings 
end in the great home-coming, and all our 
perils cease in the safety and gladness of 
the everlasting peace and rest. 



''YOU SAVED MY LIFE." 

One morning, responding to a heavy and 
startling knock at my study door, I was 
confronted by a man whose appearance 
was calculated to attract much more than 
ordinary attention. He had a fine, strong 
face and was evidently a man of consider- 
able intelligence and cultivation. Though 
bearing the marks of dissipation on his 
countenance, and somewhat excited in his 
manner, his appearance appealed to me at 
once, and I gave him my hand and invited 
him in. 

He told me who he was, and I recognized 
him as a physician of whom I had heard 
by name, but whom I had never met. He 
said: "I hardly know why I came here. I 
have never met you, and you do not know 
me. However, I know enough of you as 
the minister here to have confidence in 
you and to come to you in time of trouble. 
I am in great distress of mind. I do not 
feel that I can permit myself to live any 
longer. I placed in my pocket this morn- 
ing a poison, which will destroy life very 
suddenly, with the intention of taking it 
before returning home. As I passed your 
(92) 



"Yow Saved My Lifer 93 



home an inexplicable impulse seized me 
to stop and speak with you. But the de- 
termination to destroy myself is on me, 
and I am in despair." 

I was greatly startled. But I said to 
him: "God has sent you in here. I do not 
know what I can do for you, but I know 
what God can do for you, and I want to 
tell you, first of all, that you have no right 
to destroy the life that he called into be- 
ing. You know you would have no right to 
take the life of another person. You have 
no more right to lay violent hands on 
yourself. You may be in trouble, but God 
will help you out of it if you will seek his 
direction and aid. You will certainly only 
involve yourself in deeper trouble if you 
commit this sin and crime and rush into 
God's presence with your own blood i upon 
your hands." 

His only response to this was a despair- 
ful sort of groan, and hiding his face in his 
hands. I said: "You must not do this 
thing. Remember your responsibility to 
God. If you are weak, he is strong. You 
need and may have his strength. I tell 
you in his name and for him that you must 
not do this; and furthermore, I tell you 
that you shall not do it. I absolutely for- 
bid you in the name of all that is right 



94 



Pastoral Memories. 



and good." I thought to test the psycho- 
logical effect of authority, vesting my own 
personality for the time being with the 
supposed right to command him, and to 
be to his weak and dethroned will the im- 
personation of righteousness. It had its 
effect, and I saw him wavering. 

"And now," I said to him, "let us kneei 
down and pray." "I do not believe in pray- 
er," was his answer. "But I do," I said, 
and I believe in it with all my heart, 
and I am going to pray just now, and for 
you, and I sincerely hope that you will 
listen and, if possible, join with me in the 
prayer." I knelt beside him and asked 
God to come into his heart and life with 
his own saving and rescuing power. As 
1 arose from my knees he grasped my 
hand and started to leave the room. I 
bade him good-bye, and urged him to re- 
member his duty and his privilege, and to 
take the grace of Jesus Christ into his 
life. I was convinced that the crisis had 
passed. 

Some weeks after he came to my study 
as abruptly as on the former occasion. "I 
came to thank you for your words when 
I was here, and to tell you that you un- 
doubtedly saved my life. I would assured- 
ly have destroyed myself had it not been 



"You Saved My Life." 95 



for you." We talked for a long time, and 
it was along the one supreme line of per- 
sonal religion. I tried to make it plain 
to him, and he was approachable and at- 
tentive. As we parted, it was with the 
expression of my hope that the life which 
had been saved might be devoted to God. 

Whatever else may come to me, there 
will be the remembrance of i this man's ex- 
pression of gratitude to me and the as- 
surance that I had been the means, under 
God, of saving him from self-destruction 
m that critical day of his life. He knew 
the truth, had begun his life in a Chris- 
tian home, and I have reason to think that 
he was led to regard his duty to God and 
to give to him his faith and obedient 
service. 

There are many despairful and troubled 
souls in this world. They are reaching 
out their hands for help. They do not al- 
ways seek it as directly as they might. 
But it is for Christian people to do what 
they can to direct the attention of lost 
ones to Christ as the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world. What 
a joy if God permits one, in the next world, 
to be told by some glorified soul: "Under 
God, you were the one who led me to life 
and salvation." 



RECONCILIATION AND REVIVAL. 



People can not work for the conversion 
of souls and the glory of God while harbor- 
ing harsh and unfriendly feelings in their 
hearts. They know that they are not in 
condition to be the avenues through which 
the Holy Spirit shall go out to others if 
they cherish a bitter and unloving frame 
of mind. A revival is a great time for 
bringing about reconciliation between mem- 
bers of the Church. If there have been dis- 
agreements and estrangements, these are 
pretty sure to disappear under the warmth 
of a genuine work of divine grace. 

We had been making preparations years 
ago for an evangelistic series of meetings, 
and for some time had been urging the 
people to get right with God and with one 
another, in order that God might work 
through them to get the hearts and lives 
of other people right with himself. The 
evangelist had come. Our first meeting 
was all that could have been hoped for. 
There was a large attendance, with good 
attention to the earnest and warm-hearted 
message which he brought to us. God was 
(96) 



Reconciliation and Revival. 97 



evidently present with power and readiness 
to bless. 

At the close of the meeting a young man 
came to me and said: "I am not ready for 
this meeting, and I am sorry for it. I am 

not on speaking terms with George , 

and our disagreement puts us both out of 
the possibility of getting good or doing 
good just now." "Are you willing to be 
reconciled?" "Yes, more than willing." 
"Will you meet him to-morrow morning 
if I come with him to see you?" "Yes, 
gladly." "Well, I will see what I can do. 
Good-night, and God bless you." Scarcely 
had I stepped out of the building when i 
was accosted by the young man who had 
been mentioned. I had with him a conver- 
sation almost identical with the one just 
recorded. The result was that I was pres- 
ent at an interview between the two the 
next morning, where a complete reconcilia- 
tion was effected, and both pledged them- 
selves to harmonious and hearty effort in 
what proved to be, during the following 
weeks, a very deep and precious work of 
grace. God's Holy Spirit, who had already 
spoken to the hearts of these young men, 
made them very efficient and happy assist- 
ants in that revival. 

I have often thought of this incident and 



98 



Pastoral Memories. 



have sometimes made use of it as an illus- 
tration in urging people, at the opening of 
a meeting, to yield to the influences of 
God's Spirit, and to let him fill their hearts 
with right feelings, so that they might not 
be kept from the right attitude and service. 
I have never mentioned their names, nor 
will I, but, doubtless, they cherish pleasant 
memories of that occasion, as they have 
continued to be useful and steadfast it 
the work of Christ and his Church. 

Two men, neighbors on adjoining farms, 
and both of them members and officers in 
the church of which I was pastor, had a 
disagreement over a line-fence, and the mat- 
ter had gone so far that suit had been en- 
tered by one against the other. It had 
caused great trouble in the Church, so that 
one family had discontinued attendance. I 
had visited and talked with them both, but 
no light seemed to appear. At last, one day 
the one who had brought the suit asked me 
to go to his lawyer and instruct him to dis- 
miss the suit. "I am anxious for peace. 
I am sure I am right, but I am ready to 
suffer and let the ill-will all die out." I 
was, of course, delighted. The neighbor 
appreciated the spirit in which it was done. 
A reconciliation was securer!. A happy, ten- 
der feeling prevailed throughout the con- 



Reconciliation and Revival. 99 



gregation. Both families attended the 
church side by side. The years have gone 
by. The good results have been apparent. 
The Church is a peaceful and spiritual 
Church. The members of the two families 
have grown up as useful and effective mem- 
bers and officers of the Presbyterian 
Church. How easily might all this have 
been interfered with by a protracted feud. 
The prevention of this was due to these 
men yielding to the persuasion of the Holy 
Spirit. 

In order to have peace in the home or in 
the church there must be much mutual pa- 
tience and forgiveness. In this mutually 
forgiving disposition is found the soil in 
which flourish the flowers of the Christian 
graces and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. 
Without it there is little opportunity for 
the growth of Christian life or the power 
of God's Spirit in promoting revivals. 



PERSONAL WORK FOR SOULS. 

In my various pastoral charges I have 
been permitted to welcome into the Church 
many hundreds of persons on profession 
of their faith in Christ. Of all these there 
were very few whom I had not personally 
sought out, talked with and carefully en- 
couraged to confess Christ, I was led to 
feel that too many persons left this work 
entirely to the pastor. I was convinced 
that, if this work of personal invitation 
and encouragement were engaged in by 
Christian people generally, the results 
would be very large, for what I said might 
have been said by almost any one, it 
seemed to me, and what I did to encourage 
and help inquirers might have been done 
by almost any one who had at heart an 
interest in Christ and the welfare of souls. 

Occasionally I have had the joy of seeing 
parents coming to the session meeting with 
their children, and, in a few cases, with 
those to whom I had not spoken and whom 
I was not expecting, but those cases have 
been rare. There is nothing, however, 
more fitting than that parents should talk 
to, pray with, instruct, encourage and help 
(100) 



Personal Work for Souls. 101 



their children in coming to this crowning 
decision of life, and that they should ac- 
company them in the act of confessing 
Christ. If this were the practice of ail 
parents who are members of the Church, 
few children would fall under the power 
of the world so as to wander in the ways 
of death. 

I have sometimes been told by Sabbath- 
school teachers that they have been con- 
versing with their scholars, urging them to 
be Christians, and that certain ones have 
decided for Christ. Where this has been 
the case these teachers have done the work 
which seems to be pressed upon them. 
Nothing is more to be expected than that 
a teacher shall seek the personal salvation 
of each scholar in the class. It seems that 
this is the very work and duty and privi- 
lege of each teacher. If each teacher were 
resolved to stay with the class until every 
scholar is converted, brought into the 
Church and trained up in Christian useful- 
ness, there would be scarcely any bounds 
to the results that might be achieved. I 
have sometimes known, such teachers. Too 
generally I have had to seek out the chil- 
dren and young people personally, and labor 
with them for their conversion. 

Preaching is not enough in reaching 



102 Pastoral Memories. 



souls. The preacher must do much per- 
sonal work outside his pulpit, or the re- 
sults of his ministry will be apt to be 
meager. Impressions may be made by a 
sermon, but they need to be personally 
enforced, or they will be dissipated. Pas- 
toral work during the week should not be 
overlooked, but an inquiry or after meet- 
ing following the sermon will often prove 
to be the time for souls to make the per- 
sonal decision for Christ. Happy is the 
pastor who has many personal workers to 
extend invitations to Christ at the close 
of the service, and to enforce the words on 
individuals that have just been spoken from 
the pulpit. Whether he has them or not, 
he may reach individuals himself at such 
a time if he seeks for them with all his 
heart. 

I said to a young man at the close of 
a service: "You believe what I have just 
been saying?" "Yes, I do." "You are 
ready to decide for Christ and be a Chris- 
tian?" "Yes, I hope to be a Christian 
some time." "When?" "I do not know." 
"Let it be now. Do not defer it. Make 
your choice now. Take him at once. There 
is no time so good. You are not sure of 
any other time. Will you not decide for 
him just now?" He waited, and in an in- 



Personal Work for Souls. 103 



stant looked up into my face and said: 
"I do decide for him just now." He united 
with the Church very soon and became a 
useful Christian. How immeasurably bet- 
ter was it to speak to him as I did than 
to wait until the impression of God's 
Spirit through the sermon had partially 
passed away. 

Many a person might be led to a prompt 
and personal decision if sought out by some 
loving-hearted friend, at the close of an 
earnest sermon, and the subject pressed 
tenderly for consideration. Souls are saved 
one by one, and by brothers and friends 
they should be sought out and led to 
Christ. 



PERSONAL INVITATIONS TO CHRIST. 



People are usually willing to be spoken 
to on the subject of religion. However 
sensitive and backward they may be about 
introducing the subject, there are very few 
persons who are rude enough to repel one 
who approaches them in the proper spirit. 
It is understood by every one to be a mat- 
ter of the very highest importance, not to 
be spoken of as ordinary topics are dis- 
cussed, but quietly, reverently and in per- 
sonal confidence. I have never yet, in all 
my conversations with men on this sub- 
ject, been treated rudely or repellantly. 
It is understood by all the world that 
it is a minister's business to concern him- 
self with the spiritual welfare of his peo- 
ple, and he who does not do so not only 
fails in his duty, but forfeits the respect 
of the members of the community in which 
he lives. But this is not the privilege of 
ministers alone, for any true Christian will 
find his fellows readily accessible. 

Passing the office of a very estimable 
physician one day, I felt constrained to stop 
and have a personal talk with him, but 
(104) 



Personal Invitations to Christ. 105 



hesitated, and walked on. I still felt that 
I should turn back, but began to find ex- 
cuses, surmising that he might be busy, 
that he might not appreciate it and would 
not welcome me, or that the time might not 
be opportune. At last, after walking quite 
a distance, I turned around, walked back 
to his office, found him alone and was wel- 
comed cordially. I told him I had come ex- 
pressly to talk with him on the subject of 
personal religion, and that I hoped it 
would not be unacceptable to him. Scarce- 
ly had I spoken the words before he took 
me by the hand again, and said: "I am 
glad you have come. I want to talk to 
you." The Holy Spirit opens up the way 
oftentimes most delightfully and effectual- 
ly. Tears came to his eyes as he turned 
the key in the door to prevent interruption. 
Sitting beside me he told me that he 
wanted to be a Christian man. We prayed 
together, and as we parted it was with the 
warmest thanks on his part and the as- 
surance that he intended to make his life 
over to Christ. He is a member and an 
officer in the Presbyterian Church to-day, 
and I trust that the memory of that inter- 
view is as pleasant to him as it is to me. 

Of course, a minister preserves in sacred 
confidence such conversations, and people 

(8) 



106 



Pastoral Memories. 



know themselves- to be as safe in talking 
with their pastors on any subject as they 
do in consulting a lawyer or physician 
where professional propriety seals the lips 
on what is spoken. There should be no 
secret made of one's attachment or loyalty 
to Christ, but no true minister makes 
common talk of the sacred confidences of 
his people even on this subject. Because 
of this Christian delicacy and courtesy men 
open their hearts and talk freely to the 
pastor when the way is made clear. The 
incident just related is exactly as it oc- 
curred, and is only an illustration of almost 
innumerable interviews which I remember, 
and which find their counterpart in the 
experiences of other pastors. 

It is quite a mistake to allow personal 
timidity to interfere with this most profit- 
able and delightful part of one's Christian 
work. Many unconverted people are wish- 
ing for some one to approach them and 
lead them to Christ. A minister went to 
the office of a business man and said: "i 
hope you will pardon me if I say I wish 
you were a Christian." "Do not ask my 
pardon for this," was the answer; "I have 
been wishing for years that some one 
would speak to me on the subject of my 
sours salvation. I want you to tell me 



Personal Invitations to Christ. 107 



exactly how I can be saved. No, don't ask 
my pardon, or any one's pardon, for speak- 
ing about this. I am glad you have come, 
and I want you to help me." 

I believe that great multitudes of men 
feel in just the same manner. Whether 
they are ready to accept Christ or not, 
however, they are ready to be spoken to 
in a kind and friendly way on the subject 
of religion. They realize that it is a mat- 
ter involving delicacy, refinement and cour- 
tesy, and if spoken to in this way, they 
will answer correspondingly. We should 
make it a point to talk in a simple and 
manly way about Christ and the welfare 
of the soul to those whom we meet. No 
one can tell how much good may be done 
at any one such interview, but it is very 
sure to do some good. At any rate, we 
may leave the consequences, confidently, 
in the hands of Christ. 



THE POWER OF EARLY INFLUENCES. 

a young man came to my study door 
one night, asking for enough money to pay 
for bed and breakfast at a lodging-house. 
He was a veritable tramp, dirty, ill-dressed, 
and with the marks of dissipation on a face 
which carried the tokens of superiority to 
those who are usually found in this abject 
life. He gave me his name as b°ing the 
son of a Presbyterian minister who had 
held prominent pulpits in several of the 
largest cities of the land. I counseled and 
expostulated with him, but apparently with 
no result. I provided for him as he had 
asked, and he went his way. And yet, not- 
withstanding his parentage, I did not great 
ly wonder at the life to which he had 
fallen. 

Years before, at a meeting of Synod, the 
Committee on Temperance had brought in 
the customary report, concluding with a 
resolution pledging the Synod to opposi- 
tion to the liquor traffic, and its members 
to total abstinence. The report was so 
simply in line with what Presbyterian min- 
isters and elders are standing for that it 
(108) 



The Poiver of Early Influences. 109 



was about to pass without remark, when 
one minister arose and excitedly expressed 
his bitter antagonism to the idea of total 
abstinence. So great was the surprise 
that no response was made save an unusual- 
ly hearty and strong vote, unanimous ex- 
cept for the vote of this one man, who, 
to make his opposition more emphatic 
and unmistakable, arose and demanded that 
his vote be recorded in the negative. Afc 
clerk I recorded it, and it stands as he 
demanded. It was his son who was the 
tramp, and I did not wonder. 

So many are the temptations to intem- 
perance, and so powerful and insidious 
are they in their influence, that, if we are 
wise, we will do all we possibly can to 
make our homes the nurseries of temper- 
ance. We will let our children know, by 
precept and example, that we are on the 
side of absolute sobriety, and will endeavor 
to train them so that they shall be as 
fully committed to the same interests as 
we are ourselves. Whatever else we do, 
or do not do, in advancing the cause oi 
temperance, we may teach the propriety 
and importance of total abstinence, in our 
own families, as the rule of the home 
and the rule of our own lives. 



110 Pastoral Memories. 



At a temperance meeting which I had an- 
nounced one day for children I overheard 
the conversation of two boys. "What are 
we going to do here?" "Why, sign the 
pledge, for one thing." "And what are 
we going to do after that?" "Why, kesp 
it." That was a fine drawing of a manly 
life, sketched with a few bold lines. We 
wish every boy in the land would make 
out this program for himself, and then 
keep it as long as life shall last. 

Some do not keep the pledge after they 
have signed it. That is no argument 
against it, anymore than Judas is an argu- 
ment against Christianity, Benedict Arnold 
an argument against honor and loyalty, 
or the great numbers of the weak and un- 
converted who lapse from church member- 
ship an argument against a profession of 
faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior. Let 
us do what lies within us, by the grace of 
God, to lead others to Christ and to a place 
in his church; to an interest in temperance 
and pledged sobriety of life. 

A great number of Sabbath-school chil- 
dren had signed a beautiful pledge, and 
among them a bright-faced little boy whose 
mother was so pleased that she had it 
nicely framed and hung in the family sit- 



The Power of Early Influences. Ill 



ting-room, where she showed it to me when 
I called, and thanked me for helping he* 
boy to a right view of life. That boy grew 
up to manhood, but, also, he forgot all 
the pledges and promises that should have 
held him to a good life. He came into pos- 
session of a large fortune, which, had he 
used it aright, would have made him useful 
and influential. He became proprietor 
of a drinking saloon, and one of his 
most persistent customers. One night 
he destroyed his own life, leaving a note 
saying that there was nothing in life for 
him. For him, as for so many others, in- 
toxicating liquor had burned up all his pos- 
sibilities. 

There is nothing that so assures a good 
life to a boy or girl as to be started right, 
with right principles instilled in early life, 
and help given in making right choices. 
Millions of good men and good women are 
beng started to-day in homes and churches 
where lessons of temperance and piety are 
carefully inculcated. I still believe, and 
will believe, that as the twig is bent the 
tree's inclined. There may be those who 
lapse and, on the other hand, there may 
be those who come into a good life out of 
fiery trials, but I am more and more sure 



112 Pastoral Memories. 



that the way to insure a good outcome for 
our sons and daughters is to teach them 
the truth and to walk before them in up- 
rightness, or, as 1 the godly pastor of whom 
we read: "Point them to heaven and 
allure the way." 



SAD HEARTS AND TROUBLED LIVES. 



Almost every pastor has been called on 
to deal with sadly abnormal cases, and 
has used his best skill and wisdom in try- 
ing to meet the exigencies. He has dis- 
covered that certain men and women wers 
in a distracted condition, and has done 
what was possible to prevent catastrophic 
which seemed sure to come. 

A young man came to my study years ago 
in such a distraught and nervous conditior 
that I was very greatly wrought upon m 
knowing what to do for him. I tried to 
quiet him and overcome his agitation by 
conversation and prayer with him, but was 
not at all satisfied that I had done anything 
for him after he had gone. He was a 
member of my church and a young man of 
correct habits and probity of life, so far aa 
I knew. Evening after evening he came in 
and at last told me that he intended to take 
his life. A great dread filled him. "You 
know," he said, "I'm doomed." "What do 
you mean?" I asked him. "Why, I'm 
doomed, of course." He then proceeded 
to tell me of a great wrong he had done, 
(113) 



114 Pastoral Memories. 



the remembrance of which weighed upon 
him so that he felt he could not live. I 
thought that probably the whole thing was 
a hallucination, but I talked to him in 
the most earnest way possible In a short 
time, however, notwithstanding the most 
watchful efforts of his friends, he carried 
out his intention. It was a sad close of a 
young life that had become clouded early in 
the day. 

If physicians and household friends can 
not repair the effects of an unbalanced con- 
dition, the minister need not wonder if his 
own influence does not always succeed in 
the restoration of those whom he would 
help. Yet the power of true religion, calm- 
ing and quieting the mind, bringing assur- 
ance of pardon for past offenses and of 
present and abiding peace with God, is 
oftentimes the restorative that far sur- 
passes every other influence that can be 
brought to bear upon the life. 

A man who had passed through many 
trials said: "I know that I should have 
been insane long ago if it had not been 
for knowing how to pray. When my brain 
has been excited, my whole system un- 
nerved and sleep an apparent impossibility, 
I have lain down upon my bed, opened my 
heart to God, laid the whole burden of my 



Sad Hearts and Troubled Lives. 115 



sorrows and anxieties upon him and sought 
to accept his peace and quiet into my soul. 
And rest and sleep have come, and from 
the fountains of his grace I have found 
strength to help and keep." 

He was a wise man who said that when 
troubles come one should learn to say; 
"This also will pass." Each one knows that 
his troubles have passed away, one by 
one, and that he should not be unduly 
excited because he has some fresh trial 
that seems very great. It will pass away 
and be forgotten. Happy he who can quiet 
himself with this calm philosophy. But 
happier is he who rests on the covenant- 
keeping grace of God, and, under the wings 
of the Almighty, finds the abiding peace 
of God which passeth all understanding 
to keep the heart and mind through Christ 
Jesus. 

I was called for, in the earliest months 
of my ministry, to come to the dying bed 
of a Christian woman, a member of my 
church. She was a true believer, char- 
acterized by many of the Christian graces, 
but, like Martha, had found the cares ot 
life a burden that had brought many 
worries into her life and had made her 
anxious and troubled rather than peaceful 
and serene. As I came to her bedside, she 



116 Pastoral Memories. 



extended her hand and said: "I have been 
getting so much good out of those words. 
'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth 
in thee,' and I want you to talk to me 
about them." The way was made very 
simple to me, and I was able to talk to her 
of the quiet, trustful, happy resting on 
Jesus that makes life calm, and even makes 
death serene. In this sweet peace her life 
soon ebbed away. I have always thought 
of those words in connection with that 
death-bed, and I have been led to think 
that perhaps there are many lives, do urn 
deep in which, notwithstanding a troubled 
surface, is the sweet and abiding peace of 
God. 

There are many who are troubled and 
weary and who carry heavy burdens. One 
part of the mission of the true pastor is 
to minister to those who, from any cause, 
are in trouble. He is a benefactor who 
diminishes the sadness of human hearts, 
and he is the best benefactor of all who 
is able to discern that the best and sweet- 
est way to comfort the sad and sorrowful 
and sinful is to point them to him who 
said: "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." 



THE KEEPING OF CHRISTMAS. 



A lovely young girl came to me and said: 
''Christmas comes on the Sabbath this 
year, and I should so love to be received 
into the church on that day." There was 
no room for doubt as to the sincerity and 
simplicity of her love for the Savior, and 
it was a delight to me to afford her the 
opportunity to confess her faith, and to 
publicly welcome her into the church, in 
which she has ever since continued to 
adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in 
a consistent and well-ordered life. I have 
often thought that there is no observance 
of this beautiful anniversary occasion so 
appropriate as the gift and surrender of 
the life to Christ, the gift of whose life to 
us was the very origin of this delightful 
and sacred festival. 

Christmas is a religious anniversary, or 
it is nothing. We have no divine direc- 
tion to observe it, and so we do not class 
it with the Sabbath as a sacred day. We 
have found that those who exalt even this 
anniversary into a holy day are too apt 
to make the divinely ordained Sabbath a 
(117) 



118 Pastoral Memories. 



holiday. But surely we may observe this 
day with feelings of deep anu devout in- 
terest, and the use of it for the cultiva- 
tion of grateful, reverent, loving, kind and 
tender feelings has been, and ought to be, 
a boon and blessing to the whole world, 
wherever its beautiful joy is known and its 
tender and merry greetings are exchanged. 

A little girl said to her mother one 
Christmas morning: "Everybody has had 
presents in our house to-day, all except 
Jesus. I wonder if we could give him 
something." And when the mother, who 
was wise in her dealing with little ones, 
told her that the best thing any one could 
do would be to give the heart's best love 
to the Savior, the little girl, all sweetly 
serious, said: "That is what I will give 
Jesus to-day. I will give him my heart." 
What better thought could there be, and 
how could the day be more truly cele- 
brated, by young or old, by sage or little 
child, than by the gift of the love and 
life to him who gave himself for us. 

I have sometimes wondered over the 
effect of the Santa Claus observances, as 
generally practiced in Sabbath-school 
Christmas exercises. I know that some 
protest that it is always and necessarily 



The Keeping of Christmas. 119 



wrong and unwholesome. Certain it is 
that, even if used as a mirthful entertain- 
ment for week-day evening, and as a mys- 
tifying legend for the delight of the home 
circle and hearthstone, there should be the 
clear and distinct teaching in the religious 
exercises of the Christmas Sabbath, in the 
church, the Sabbath-school and the home, 
of the coming of the divine Savior as the 
Babe of Bethlehem, and the whole truth 
of the divine advent should be made as 
familiar as household words, that it may 
never pass out of mind and memory. 

My first Christmas as a pastor was spent 
in a little Western town, where frontier 
community interests brought most of the 
people into very simple and harmonious 
relations in the church observance of this 
friendly festival. A hall was secured, a 
large tree put in place, some short and 
simple religious exercises engaged in, and 
then there was the distribution of pres- 
ents. Some little gift had been provided 
for each one. Then came the presents 
from parents to children, of teachers to 
scholars and of scholars to teachers, of 
friends to friends, and of the people to the 
pastor. Each person enjoyed seeing what 
the others had received, and in the gen- 



120 



Pastoral Memories. 



eral community of pleasure the joy was 
intensified and multiplied, as it can be 
among such a people. Then on the Sab- 
bath came the hearty religious services, in 
which all were reminded of the infinite 
love of God in the gift of his dear Son, 
and the hearts of all were lifted up in 
sincere and unaffected adoration of the 
King. And as we think of this and other 
observances of Christmas since, our hearts 
are strangely touched and made wonder- 
fully solemn under the holy tide of tender 
memories. 

Many times I have been called on to per- 
form the marriage ceremony on Christmas 
day. Many are the couples who have given 
themselves each to the other in the mar- 
riage covenant on this beautiful day, and 
who have dated the beginning of a life- 
long happiness from the golden hours of 
this glad anniversary. But even when 
some are happiest sorrows may come into 
other hearts and homes, and even on 
Christmas I have knelt by the bedside of 
the sick and dying, and have gone with 
weeping, broken-hearted ones to the silent 
cities of the dead to help them lay their 
loved ones out of their sight. They who 
rejoice with those who do rejoice must 



The Keeping of Christmas. 121 



often, also, weep with, those who weep. 
To those who know Christ, however, there 
is consolation and the wiping of the tears 
from their faces. After all of earth's sor- 
rows comes the eternal joy. From the 
birth and life and death of the Babe of 
Bethlehem come to all who love him a 
peace and joy that never fade away. 



(9) 



THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE 
CHURCH. 



In the little frontier town to which, in 
my seminary life, I had been sent by our 
synodical missionary to gather a church, 
I was greeted most warmly by the people 
who had come to found their homes and 
business there, and who wished religious 
influences for themselves and their fami- 
lies. The little church was organized in 
due time, with good prospects of useful- 
ness, and it is to-day fulfilling the prom- 
ises of its early life. Among the most 
effusive expressions of welcome I re- 
ceived was that extended to me by a busi- 
ness man who had invested all he had in 
a hotel and some other buildings, and who 
said: Tin glad you've come. We're try- 
ing to build a town here, and have made 
a pretty good start, but we can't do any- 
thing without a church, and we know it. 
So we wish you success, and we'll do all 
we can to help you." I found him to be 
utterly irreligious, but he was always a 
good helper in temporal matters, and, al- 
though I was never able to see that lie 
was helped spiritually, I know he was not 
( ±22) 



The Commercial Value of the Church. 123 



disappointed in what the church did for 
him in a practical, business, material way. 

As I was leaving the place at the end of 
my work, to return to the theological 
seminary, another business man, who 
never went to church, met me cordially, 
and, handng me a twenty-dollar gold 
piece, said: "I have never been to hear 
you preach. It might have been better if 
I had; but I just want to say that you've 
helped our town and made it a better 
place to live in, and I want you to know 
that I appreciate what you've done, and 
that I wish you well." 

At the close of a pastorate in a town 
where I knew every man and woman and 
child, I was accosted by the one man 
who had made it a point during all those 
years never to be seen in a church. I 
had seen or had known of every other 
one being in the churches. This one was 
the one absolute outsider. He said to 
me: "Perhaps you think it strange that 
I never go to church. You know I never 
do. Yet I want to tell you that you have 
helped to make this a good place to live 
in, and besides, if there were no church 
here, I'd pull up and leave the town be- 
fore sundown. It would be no place to 



124 Pastoral Memories. 



live in or do business in." He knew the 
difference between heathenism and Chris- 
tianity. 

I knew a man who owned a fine faini 
Near it was a little church which he and 
his family had deserted, helping to build 
and maintain an infidel or liberal hall 
in the neighborhood, to which infidel and 
spiritualist lecturers came to assail the 
truth of the gospel, in the faith of which 
many of the people of the neighborhood 
had been reared. Much evil was done 
in the hall. But the time came when 
this man wished to sell his farm, and 
I saw the advertisement in which he set 
forth its advantages. He said it was near 
a railroad station, a town, a school-house, 
and a church; but he said not a word 
about the infidel hall. He had learned 
that infidelity was a business detriment, 
and that the evangelical church was a 
financial advantage. Few people would 
want to buy a farm with an infidel hall 
as a neighbor, if they knew about it, and 
he was shrewd enough to speak of the 
church, but to say nothing about the hall, 
And herein he was wise, as are other 
children of this world in their genera- 
tion. 



The Commercial Value of the Church. 125 



Th@ commercial value of the church 
bears relation to its primary purpose 
something as a by-product does to the 
main production of a factory or mine. 
The great object of the church is to be 
a means for the conversion of souls ana 
the nurture of Christian life. This is 
what it was divinely devised and origin- 
ated for, and Christian ministers and peo 
pie are to keep this great fact in mind 
all the time. But, along with this, other 
results are secured, such as the advance- 
ment of education and other refinements 
and amenities of civilization, the better 
protection of life and the advancement in 
commercial value of all the property in- 
terests of the community. 

In many cases the by-products pay all 
the costs of the factory, and leave the 
main product absolutely clear gain to the 
manufacturers. So do the temporal ad- 
vantages of Christianity pay for all the 
cost and effort set forth in its mainte- 
nances, so that, even if there were no fu- 
ture life, no immortality, no forgiveness 
of sins, and no heaven and salvation, the 
church would be a most profitable and 
desirable factor in our world's life, and 
its ministers must be counted as busi- 



126 



Pastoral Memories. 



ness men and commercial agents along 
side of the greatest manufacturers and 
merchants in the production and con- 
serving of commercial values. It is a 
matter of interest that a minister may flea 
such an estimate set on his services, and it 
is a pleasure to have such a memory as to 
one's work. 

But this is immeasurably beneath the 
satisfaction that comes from the estimate 
.set upon his work by good men and by 
God himself, as one who, in preaching the 
everlasting gospel, turns souls from dark- 
ness to light and from sin and sorrow to 
everlasting life and salvation. 



RELIGION PUT TO THE TEST. 

Religion is being tested continually be- 
fore the world in the lives of those who 
claim to possess it. The people of the 
world are questioning whether the pro- 
fessed followers of Christ have anything 
more than they have themselves. One of 
the tests is to be found in the way pro- 
fessed Christians bear themselves in time 
of trouble. 

A gentleman, who was one of the officers 
of the church, and perhaps its most promi- 
nent and efficient member, was called 
away by death. He was not only faithful 
himself in all his Christian duties, but was 
particular in the training and oversight of 
his household, so that all the members of 
his family as well as himself were to be 
found at all the services of the church, and 
identified with all that went to promote its 
welfare. A lady of beautiful Christian 
character told me that she always thought 
of him when she heard or read the hymn 
commencing: "I love thy kingdom, Lord." 
His wife was as intimately associated as 
was he in the various activities of the 
church. Yet, upon his death, she went 
(127) 



128 



Pastoral Memories. 



into the deepest solitude and was not even 
seen in the church for the space of at least 
a year. She said she could not bear to 
be there. Years after this she told me: 
"I made such a great mistake. I should 
have gone to church every Sabbath, and 
should not have been away from my ac- 
customed place. I lost much of strength 
and comfort myself, and I failed to testify 
before the world to the upholding and 
keeping grace of Christ. , ' And I have al- 
ways been sure that this view was the 
right one. 

Very different was the case of another 
member of my church, who had been as 
sorely and sorrowfully bereaved in the 
death of a most kind and excellent hus- 
band. The next Sabbath after the funeral 
she appeared in her place in the church, 
and, although deeply touched, took part 
as usual in the services of the day. She 
said: "I did not feel that I could stay 
away. We always came here together to 
God's house to worship. I know he would 
want me to do so now. I have been helped 
by coming. I knew, too, if I stayed away, 
that it would look as though the Lord was 
not upholding me in my trouble, and I 
want my little influence, however small, 
to be on his side." There was clear testi- 



Religion Put to the Test. 



129 



mony. There was religion put to the test 
and standing the test, and shining like 
pure gold in the eyes of the world. 

If a Christian has a real part in the love 
and grace of God, he has something very 
vital and very actual for the life that now 
is, as well as for that which is to come. 
He is to have heaven after a while, but 
he has no need to wait until that time, for 
he can have a great deal of the heavenly 
life and experience on earth, if he is only 
willing to accept it and enjoy it now and 
here. Let him show to the world that this 
is real. Let him bear testimony to the 
goodness and grace of God. Let him prove 
to be a good witness to the truth of Christ, 
and show the world that he has in his own 
heart and life something that the uncon- 
verted do not possess. This is an effectual 
way to win others to love and trust Christ. 

A Christian man who had been at the 
head of a very prosperous business became 
involved, through no fault of his own, and 
so deeply that he lost nearly every cent 
he had in the world, and was compelled to 
accept a very subordinate clerkship, in his 
advancing years, in the very establishment 
of which he had been once the head. 
Some men might have become sour and 
gruff and bitter. Some might have be- 



130 Pastoral Memories. 



come broken down in spirits and dissipated 
in life. It was not so with him. He glori- 
fied God by keeping a sweet and loving 
heart. Of course, he felt very deeply his 
changed condition, and was ready to speak 
of his reverses and loss; but he did it in 
a Christian, spirit, and there was no one 
who knew him but felt that his testimony 
for Christ and for the sustaining grace of 
God was as loud and clear in his time of 
depression as it had been in the time of 
his material prosperity. The fact was 
that he was a genuine Christian, and peo- 
ple saw and knew that religion was a mat- 
ter of life, and not of mere profession, 
with him. 

I have known persons who, in the sick- 
ness and feebleness and disability of old 
age, have been peevish and fretful and re- 
pining, showing little evidence of the sus- 
taining grace of God to those who saw 
them oftenest, even though professing 
Christians. But I have known others who 
realized that, with advanced age and 
changed conditions, they must be content 
with the quieter and shut-in life, and that 
old age is a time that may be character- 
ized by great beauty and charmfulness of 
life if properly accepted. Old age is a 
time for a very forceful witnessing for the 



Religion Put to the Test. 131 



sustaining and comforting grace of God 
if patience, faith, and sweetness of thought 
and speech and life are cultivated. 

In all conditions of trial and depression 
the eyes of the world are on the professed 
followers of Christ, to see if they have 
any real grace from on high after all. 
Happy are they who in times of sickness, 
bereavements, reversals of fortune and old 
age can testify, in a beautiful life, to the 
keeping and comforting nature of true re- 
ligion. 



AFRAID OF THE BIBLE. 

"I can't read the Bible. I don't see how 
any one can. It talks of so many things 
that I just can't bear to think of. It re- 
minds me of dying and all of that. It 
frightens me, and makes me miserable 
every time I open it, and the result is that 
I just shut it up and put it away. The sub- 
ject of religion frightens me. It is an 
awful thing. I don't permit myself to 
think of it." 

This was not the talk of an insane wom- 
an, although one might readily believe the 
brain to be crazed from which such 
thoughts proceeded. She was an exceeding- 
ly capable woman, a famous housekeeper, 
holding her place proudly in the social cir- 
cle, and far above the average in general 
intelligence and culture. She did not take 
an attitude of unbelief or rejection of the 
Bible. She was not atheist or infidel, in 
theory. She was, practically, living without 
God and without hope in the world, but it 
was from a wrong understanding of the 
whole matter. She was a woman of kind 
heart and good impulses, but she was per- 
(132) 



Afraid of the Bible. 



133 



mitting herself to be robbed of spiritual 
peace and comfort as she lived on in a 
trembling, unsaved, worldly life. In this 
attitude she was not alone. 

A physician once used almost the same 
language in speaking to me. He passed as 
a man of intelligence and culture among his 
fellows. But he avoided the church and 
the matter of personal religion. He would 
talk freely on almost every other subject. 
But he found no joy or satisfaction in the 
contemplation of religion. "I don't go to 
church, and I can't stand it to read the 
Bible. Why, it's such a tremendous subject. 
It fairly makes my hair stand on end. I 
keep my thoughts away from it. I am un- 
nerved when I think on it." 

Does it not seem strange that any one 
should speak in this way in regard to a 
matter that has so much of comfort and 
delight to so many millions of people who 
are now alive, and which has been wel- 
comed by similar numbers in all centuries 
since the gospel was first given to men? 
Those who are the real children of God 
find a satisfaction in the ways of true re- 
ligion that they would not exchange for 
anything that the whole world could give. 
They find help and comfort and consola- 



134 Pastoral Memories. 



tion through the assurances and promises 
of God, and would think their lives to be 
dark indeed if his grace were withdrawn 
from their hearts. 

Sickness is to be dreaded,, but the good 
physician and the trained nurse who come 
to rout it are to be welcomed most gladly. 
It is only the foolish child or the hysterical 
patient of maturer years who is frightened 
by the visit of the physician. So sin and 
its consequences are dreadful, and the one 
who is involved in them can not make too 
much haste in fleeing from them in repent- 
ance to the outstretched arms of the Re- 
deemer. To think that religion is fright- 
ful or that the Savior is forbidding is to 
confound all distinctions under the fal- 
lacious lead of the enemy of our souls. 

When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea 
a cloud separated them from their pur- 
suers. The side of the cloud that was to- 
ward the Israelites was bright, and it 
lighted up the way in which they were 
speeding forward to deliverance and free- 
dom. There was something majestic and 
awe-inspiring in the magnificent outburst 
of light around and about them from the 
cloud, but there was nothing in the light 
to make the Israelites terror-stricken. It 
was for their safety, and it might well fill 



Afraid of the Biole. 



135 



their hearts with gladness. But the other 
side of the cloud was dark, and it ob- 
structed the way of the Egyptians, and out 
from it burst thunders and lightning for 
their discomfiture and distress. 

There are two sides to God's truth as 
presented to us in his Word. One side of 
the revelation is the divine reproof of sin 
and the statement as to the guilt and dan- 
ger of the impenitent and unbelieving. But 
no one need remain impenitent, and, if he 
does, he himself, and not God, is the one 
who is terrible. He is his own destroyer. 
The other side of the revelation is the man- 
ifestation of the infinite tenderness of the 
love of God, in the free salvation provided 
by the atoning death of Jesus Christ and 
pressed upon us by the Holy Spirit, with 
the pleadings and promises and heavenly 
provisions of God's merey lovingly offered 
to all wio will believe. 

True religion is a joy and a comfort to 
all who love God. Some people mistake its 
meaning, and some, by a course of sin and 
worldliness, shut themselves out of its joy. 
But the palace doors of Christ's love and 
of his heaven are open, and we are invited 
in, and no one who enters in response to 
the loving call of God will find gloom or 
terror within its resplendent portals. 



MY FIRST RAINY SABBATH. 

It was a very sore trial to me when I 
awakened that Sabbath morning to find the 
rain pouring down 2 all the indications be- 
ing that it would continue, as it did. It 
was a very wet and disagreeable day, the 
inevitable result being that many were 
kept away from the church service to 
which I had been looking forward all the 
week with kindling expectations. 

It was a great disappointment. I had 
made special preparation on a very im- 
portant subject, and I was anxious to meet 
fall the people of the church. Of cour3e 
they did not all come. I felt almost as if 
I were laboring under a personal grievance. 
It seemed to me that more of the people 
might have come if they had been genu- 
inely courageous and energetic. The storm 
seemed to be my own, exclusive, personal 
misfortune. I tried not to be rebellious, 
but I was chagrined and sorrowful, and I 
passed almost a sleepless night after the 
mortifications of the day. 

I have learned since then that other 
ministers and other congregations have 
passed through such experiences frequently, 
(136) 



My First Ramy Sabbath. 137 



as I have myself many a time since that 
day. It was a trial such as is common to 
all, and it had its compensations. I came 
to know the people who would not be 
kept away from church by any trifling 
matter; that dauntless inner circle, found 
in every church, who may be depended on 
to come to prayer-meeting, or even to Mon* 
day night service, rainy or clear, wet or 
dry, cold or hot. Bach minister comes to 
know this Gideon's band, and for certain 
great and high things they are the ones 
upon whom he commonly relies. I came to 
know many of these on that first rainy 
Sabbath in my early ministry, and from 
them, then and on other days, my heart 
drew much needed comfort. 

I was always glad that I preached the 
sermon I had prepared for the occasion, 
and with all the force and ardor I could 
crowd into it, and I felt amply repaid 
when some of the poeple said: "You gave 
us a most excellent and helpful sermon 
even if it was raining, and few of us were 
out. On rainy days our old minister would 
scold us because there were so few of us, 
and then would preach almost anything 
and keep his regular sermon for a fine day 
and a large congregation. The way it 



(10) 



138 



Pastoral Memories. 



worked was that even on the fine days the 
congregations were small. If you treat 
us as you did to-day we'll come even on the 
rainy days and dark nights." It taught 
me a much-needed lesson, and I have never 
scolded the people who came for the vacant 
seats, and I have always tried to preach 
my very best sermons to the small con- 
gregations. As a consequence I have not 
had so much to cry over as some who 
have not learned this very important les- 
son. 

We are not accountable for everything. 
Some young ministers and some other peo- 
ple seem to take the whole weight: of the 
universe on their shoulders, and when any 
thing goes wrong are weighed down by it. 
This is wrong. We must do our whole 
duty and leave the results in God's hands. 
A great astronomer had prepared for an 
eclipse with great and painstaking dili- 
gence. But the day of the eclipse was a 
day of clouds and darkness. "This is a 
great disappointment, is it not, professor?"' 
"Oh, no," was his answer; "I was all 
ready." Had he been unprepared he would 
have had reason for shame. As it was 
God's providence, there was no reason for 
self-scourging. Let us be ready, and, if it 



My First Rainy Sabbath. 139 



rains, let us accept the rain as of God's 
own good appointment. 

There were other compensations, too, that 
first rainy Sabbath. One promising young 
man who was there that morning was led 
to give his heart to Christ, and that was 
a result to rejoice over for all time and 
all eternity. Some others to whom I was 
very closely drawn that morning agreed 
to come, and did come, into the church 
by letter. It was a fruitful day after all. 
Would that every day and every sermon 
had been even as fruitful. It is a pleasing 
thing to see good results, and when God 
permits us to see them we may well be 
glad. 

The weather is a very prolific topic for 
conversation. Some one has remarked to 
the effect that there is probably more said 
and less done about it than anything in 
the whole round of human experience. It 
might be well to take it for granted as it 
comes and, on the rainy Sabbath, and with 
the small congregation, for the minister to 
make sure that there is a profitable and 
warm-hearted message, a cheery smile and 
a cordial hand-grasp, in the spirit and love 
of Christ, for every one who comes to the 
house of God. 



THE OLD BLACK BOTTLE, 



In my very early ministry I went to call 
on one of the families of my church living 
in a very retired and humble dwelling. I 
was told before going that the mother re- 
tained many of the ways of the old coun- 
try, from which she had come, and I had 
noticed many of the Old World peculiari- 
ties about her person, speech and man- 
ners as I had niet her at a few of the 
services of the church. So I was not very 
greatly surprised, after a cordial visit, 
and after Scripture reading and prayer, 
when she went to the cupboard, got down 
a black bottle, and offered me and my good 
elder a drink for our refreshment. In as 
kindly a way as possible, and yet very de- 
cidedly, the contents of the black bottle 
were refused for that time and for ail 
time, and a gentle admonition was given 
as to the inadvisability of such refresh- 
ment, even in a religiously social or oc- 
casional way. 

It may have been the custom of her 
early life, and she may have seen minis- 
ter and elder accept the glass when on 
(140) 



The Old Black Bottle. 141 



the round of pastoral duty in her early 
home, but none the less the nature of -the 
drink was and is to bite, at last, like a 
serpent and to sting like an adder. None 
can feel safe, or know themselves safe ; 
if it is trifled with, even under the plea of 
old-country custom or religious and so- 
cial associations. Alas! that her sons 
should have grown up to be its victims 
and to have lost their lives while under 
its influence! Alas! that her daughters 
should have married men who, through 
its use, made their lives most wretched! 
Alas! that the mother herself should have 
become so confirmed in its use as to have 
lost nearly everything worth living for, 
and at last to have taken her own life. 

It is a deadly enemy to every interest 
we hold dear. There is no safety for any 
one, young or old, man or woman, if it 
be tampered with. The bottle in the 
home, black or green or white, plain glass 
or cut glass, filled with dark liquor or 
sparkling wine, is a menace to the well- 
being of parent and of child. No matter 
what the Old-World customs may have 
been or are now; no matter if minister 
or elder, in far-off time or far-off land, took 
the glass when offered in the home of 
parishioners at the time of the social and 



142 



Pastoral Memories. 



religious visit; no matter by what glamour 

it may have been surrounded, the remem- 
brance of it sanctified and its use justified, 
the fact is that it is a deadly thing, to be 
put far away from the habitations of the 
righteous and the prudent. 

I have never believed that the most sa- 
cred associations could change the intox- 
icating principle of alcoholic drinks, or 
justify one in their use, and so I have 
never been willing to use alcoholic wine 
at the communion table. In fact, I never 
have administered it in any pastoral 
charge of my own, excepting the first time 
I conducted the communion. I did not 
think of inquiring about it at that time. 
Since then I have been on my guard, and 
have always insisted on the use of the 
unfermented fruit of the vine. I have 
never been willing to use alcohol in this 
sacred feast, and be, in any remote or 
possible way, the means of arousing an 
appetite which was being fought down, but 
which might leap to life again at the touch 
of the fire of temptation. 

I remember hearing, when a child, an 
old J time minister descanting on his high 
emotions as he caught the aroma of the 
strong alcoholic wine at the communion, 
filling the whole house and making the 



The Old Black Bottle. 



143 



feast a veritable banquet to (his spiritual 
and physical nature. I have known of 
men going from such an atmosphere to 
drink and be drunken, and there was 
never any sensation that came to me in 
such circumstances but what was full of 
pain and the sense of wrong. I do not 
believe that there should be anything at 
the communion table that savors of, or 
that incites to, fleshly indulgence; and I 
rejoice that nearly all our churches now 
use unfermented wine at the communion. 
Let us keep our churches and our homes 
absolutely free from all complicity with 
the use of alcoholic drink. Misery and 
ruin, shame and sorrow and disaster it 
has brought, and it must be ours to help 
free tne world from it, rather than to 
help fasten the habit on any one, and aid 
in his destruction. 



LEAVING CHRIST OUT. 



I was once approached by a Jewish gen- 
tleman with the request that I should 
conduct a funeral in a Jewish family. He 
told me that tlhey had no rabbi and that 
it might be difficult to secure one ex- 
cept by sending quite a distance. A little 
child had died and the parents thought 
they would like to have me. "But," said 
he, "there is one condition. You must 
not mention Christ in your remarks or 
at the close of your (prayers." I told him 
that I could make no such promise. Great 
as my sympathy was for them, and ten- 
derly as I felt toward them in their af- 
fliction, I was a Christian minister and 
could not, deliberately, make covenant to 
utterly exclude the name of Christ from 
any service. But, I told him, if they 
still wished me, I would come in all the 
tenderness and helpfulness possible, and 
would try to point the parents to the com- 
fort that even the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures contain for those who mourn the 
loss of their little children. 
(144) 



Leaving Christ Out. 



145 



He then asked me if any other Christian 
minister in the place would agree to do 
as he wished. I told him that I felt quite 
sure no one would make such a promise. 
He was quite indignant, but, on taking his 
leave, told me that he might return. A 
few days after he met me and told me 
that they had secured a rabbi from a 
neighboring city. He also explained to 
me that he could not blame me for my 
position. He afterward attended my ser- 
vices very frequently and, at one time, told 
me that he would be willing to become a 
Christian if it were not for the social 
and religious ostracism which he would 
have to suffer from his people, and which 
he was not willing to endure. I do not 
know how near, in reality, he came to 
the kingdom. I never had any idea that 
I would have had more influence over him 
had I done as he requested, and deliberately 
denied Christ for the satisfaction of him- 
self and his Jewish friends. Paul, Peter 
and John did not deny Christ in order to 
win converts from Judaism. 

It is a very dangerous thing for one 
to make the resolution to leave Christ 
out of his life. It is a very hardening 
process. I know a home where the par- 



146 Pastoral Memories. 



ents made an agreement to disagree on the 
subject of religion. They agreed to have 
nothing to do with it. It was really an 
agreement to live absolutely irreligious 
lives, saying nothing to one another or 
in the family on the subject. The result 
was that they lived as practical atheists. 
They had no room for Christ in their 
life. God was a stranger in their home. 
He was never mentioned. There was no 
blessing asked at the table. There was 
no prayer and no Bible reading and no 
family altar. The church was neglected 
There were no religious books or papers in 
the home. The children grew up without 
religious instruction. The mother had 
been religiously reared, but out of love 
for this irreligious man she married him 
and found the lifelong misery and evil 
of being thus unequally yoked with an 
unbeliever. Her silence on the matter of 
supreme importance was a terrible price 
to pay for such a marriage. All that is 
truest and best and sweetest in life dies 
out under such repression and denial. 
Many a woman has been the means of her 
husband's conversion, but not often, I sup- 
pose, after a positive agreement to deny 



Leaving Christ Out. 



147 



Christ and a deliberate covenant to bar 
him from the home. 

I was talking one day with a physician 
whose father was a fervent minister in 
another church than my own. He told me 
that he himself was not a member of the 
church and never expected to be. I ex- 
pressed surprise and said that I hoped he 
might yet change his mind and become 
personally a Christian and a member 01 
the church. "No, sir," said he. "I'll bet 
you five hundred dollars that I never will/' 
Such an expression was so deliberately 
heathen in spirit and form that I was 
shocked as by few things I had ever heard 
men say. So far as I know, he is still 
in this antagonistic attitude, but I do not 
know what is yet to be the result. Christ 
has sometimes a way of finding room in 
one's life even when locked out and there 
is an asssurance that, some time, in some 
way, conquered if not won, broken if not 
submissive, bent by power if not by love, 
every knee shall bow and every tongue 
confess that Christ is Dord. 

I have known persons who have lived 
in neglect of Christ to be converted and 
made his loyal and loving followers. I 



148 



Pastoral Memories, 



have known many who have been strang- 
ers to his grace to become acquainted with 
him and filled with his love. The glory 
of Christ in his gospel is that so many, 
Jews and Greeks and Gentiles alike, who 
have left Christ out of their hearts for 
a while, have been won and persuaded to 
give him the best place in their lives. 



ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 



I called one day, on invitation, to see a 
young man who, I was told, was very ill. 
I had never met him until that time. He 
seemed very frail, was very much ema- 
ciated, and, he told me, he was suffering 
greatly and had been confined to his bed 
for a long time, with but little hope of re- 
covery. I found him most concerned about 
'his bodily condition, but thinking also 
about his soul, and he was anxious to be 
talked to and prayed with and for. He 
was very attentive, and participated ear- 
nestly in the brief exercises in which we 
engaged. I prayed that he might realize 
the gracious presence and forgiveness of 
the Lord, and that,, if it were the divine 
will, the means used for his recovery might 
be blessed, and that he might be restored 
to physical health and strength. After 
this I called to see him a number of times, 
and prayed with him. He manifested a 
deep and gratifying religious interest, with 
evident tokens of a glad acceptance of 
Christ as his own Savior. A manifest im- 
(149) 



150 Pastoral Memories. 



provement in his physical condition was 
soon apparent, and it was not long until 
he was on his feet and out of the house, 
and apparently recovered. He united with 
the Church and, so long as I knew him, 
lived a consistent life. He was very grate^ 
ful to me for my attention to him. He said 
to many persons that it was in answer to 
my prayers that he had recovered, and that 
I had led him to know and love Christ. 

If I am asked whether I believe his re- 
covery was in answer to prayer, I am ready 
to make reply in all sincerity that I do. I 
believe that whatever comes to pass after 
it has been prayed for, according to the 
conditions laid down in God's Word, is 
to be considered as an answer to prayer. 
Whether God would have sent it had it not 
been prayed for, only God himself knows. 
We must not, at least, be like Abraham's 
servant, Eliezer, praying for a specified 
object and seeing so prompt and exact an 
answer that he was startled, and wondered 
whether God had indeed sent this as an 
answer. Yes, I believe that God answers 
the prayers of his people, and if we would 
learn to credit him with so doing, our faith 
in him and in prayer and in his promises 
would be continually strengthened. 



Answers to Prayer. 151 



I have reason for believing, in this par- 
ticular instance, that the recovery of this 
young man was largely brought about by 
his conversion. In his new spiritual life 
he took hold of the hand of God, and wias 
lifted up into conditions in which God was 
present to heal him, both soul and body. 
I have no disposition, at this place, to dis- 
cuss the subject of bodily healing, but I 
do wish to emphasize my conviction of the 
fact that God does honor his promises, and 
does answer the prayers of his people that 
are addressed to him in faith in Jesus 
Christ. If some prayers do not seem to 
be answered, let us be assured that God, 
in his wisdom and love, saw that it was 
not best to do so, and let us rest it there. 
But in the millions of cases where we have 
asked for what he has seen fit to give us, 
let us be glad that he has heard and an- 
swered us. 

The keeping of what may be known as 
a "prayer list" was called to my attention 
many years ago, by Mr. Moody, I think. 
The list is to contain, on some page to be 
kept entirely private, the names of those 
in whose spiritual welfare oae becomes 
interested, and for whom r ayer is made. 
I presume I have had * ndreds of such 



152 Pastoral Memories. 



names oil my list as pastor. Special ef- 
forts have been, made for these persons, 
and as they became converted and added 
to the Church, their names have been 
transferred to other lists. A reference to 
those pages with the names marked off, 
in most cases, is to me a convincing and 
satisfactory assurance that the prayers of 
faith are answered. Such a list might well 
be kept, not only by every pastor, but by 
every Christian. Those w*ho follow some 
such plan as this, and make frequent pray- 
ers for particular persons, and who follow 
up those prayers by earnest and individual 
effort, will never question whether God 
keeps his promises and answers prayer. 

One who has made it a daily rule to 
pray to God, and for definite objects, can 
look back over the years land marvel that 
so many prayers have been answered and 
so few have gome unanswered. The latter 
have been the exceptions, I feel sure. One 
who has prayed for God's presence and for- 
giveness, and for growth in spiritual life 
and power to overcome temptation, and for 
assistance in life's duties, and for the con- 
version o* loved ones, and the spread of the 
gospel, ana tfae advance of Christ's king- 
dom, and for , "* ce and patience, and other 



Answers to Prayer. 153 



similar blessings, lias had these priayers 
answered as regularly and certainly as the 
rising of the sun and the coming of the 
showers to water the earth. I have always 
believed in prayer, and have tried to 
strengthen the faith of others in God as 
the one who answers prayer, and the 
longer I live the surer I am that very few 
of the real prayers of God's people even 
seem to be unanswered. 



(11) 



SURPRISES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. 



It was a time of great revival interest in 
the church and community and many per- 
sons were being converted and added to 
the church. Sabbath-school teachers were 
concerning themselves about the members 
of their classes; parents were concerned 
about their children; pastors and other re- 
ligious workers were busied in meeting and 
talking with those who might be led to de- 
cide for Christ, or who might be aroused 
to take up new forms of Christian service. 

A Sabbath-school teacher said to me: "I 
have been greatly rebuked for lack of faith. 
I have seven girls in my class. For all of 
them I have felt hopeful except one. It 
seemed to me that this one was a long way 
off from Christ and a saved life. I wrote 
to the other six and asked them at various 
times during the last few days to come to 
my house, and I have talked and prayed 
with them. I hope and expect them all 
to unite with the church. But last night, 
When the invitation was given to give the 
heart and life to Christ and to come for- 
(154) 



Surprises and Disappointments. 



155 



ward to unite with the church, this one 
girl, for whom I had no hope, was the 
very first one to arise and express her faith 
and love, and I have had nothing to do 
with her action. So far she is the only 
one in the class to take this step. I feel 
as if I had left myself out of a very great 
joy and that Christ is rebuking me for my 
lack of faith. ,, She had already taken the 
girl in her arms, told her of her great 
gladness, and had heartily welcomed her, 
but she felt as though she had failed in 
a very important duty. 

The teacher, however, had been very 
largely instrumental in the conversion of 
this member of her class, and her faithful 
instruction and excellent example were 
blessed to each and all of her pupils. She 
had for a long time done all she could for 
all of them, but she had, at this particular 
time, made a wrong estimate, through no 
fault of her own, of the spiritual condition 
of this one. The Holy Spirit had used 
some other means for leading her to the 
act of decision. 

Every pastor has some such experiences. 
I never engaged in evangelistic services 
with just the results I expected. Some 
have been converted in such meetings 
whom I was not expecting. Some have 



156 Pastoral Memories. 



failed to be impressed for whom I moat 
diligently and earnestly labored. It is a 
matter which is not in our own hands. 
Id dividual wills make their own choice, 
and one can not always influence them 
as we would. God finds some to Whom 
our attention has not been attracted and 
often shows us that he is supreme, and not 
we, in the kingdom of grace. Work for 
the salvation of souls leads us to be very 
shumble before God and very dependent 
upon him, and arouses within us the sense 
of our own- helplessness in the matter of 
influencing others in the supreme matter 
of their salvation. 

A father once told me, in speaking of 
the intention of himself and his wife to 
unite with the church on profession at the 
next communion, that he intended to have 
all his children unite with the church at 
the same time. The communion season 
came and the parents were received, but 
none of the children came, nor have they 
come since, so far as I know. These pa- 
rents had neglected the matter of leading 
their children to Christ in early life, and 
as the years went by they found that they 
had no real hold upon them. It was a 
great surprise and a great disappointment 
to tin em, but they had neglected to live 



Surprises and Disappointments. 157 



before them as Christian parents in the 
critical time of their children's lives. 

We ought to be very personal in our 
work for the salvation of souls. We should 
strive to lead to Christ the members of 
our families, of our classes, of our congre- 
gations and of our communities. We ought 
to individualize. We ought to know the 
particular persons for whom we seek. We 
ought to talk to them and pray for them. 
We ought to set in operation the wisest 
and most effective means for reaching 
them. We ought to feel that this is our 
supreme work, for Which sermons and 
church services, and Sabbath-schools and 
prayer meetings, and evangelistic meetings 
and all else are means to an end. 

The saving of souls to the glory of Cod 
is the end toward which all our efforts 
are to be used as means. With all of this 
purpose on our part we shall fail to secure 
just what we seek to accomplish. Some 
persons we seek for we shall fail to reach. 
Some will come whom we did not expect. 
Let us be diligent. Let us be humble. To 
God be all the glory. 



CHURCH LETTERS. 



At the close of a Sabbath morning serv- 
ice, as I stepped down from the pulpit 
and was speaking with some of my peo- 
ple, I was approached by a pleasant- 
faced young woman who, handing me a 
paper, said: "I have brought you my 
church letter. We have just moved here, 
and I wanted to meet you and come into 
the church at once." She gave me her 
name and residence, and before she left 
the church she had been made acquainted 
with a number of the church people and 
heartily welcomed. In the evening her 
husband was with her at the service. 
They had been married only a short time, 
and it was not long until he united with 
the church on profession. They entered 
heartily into the life and activities of the 
congregation, and were among its hap- 
piest and most useful members. I never 
heard of her complaining that the people 
of the church were cold and distant, or 
that she was being overlooked. There 
was never any reason for her saying so, 
for she met the people as a sensible, oor- 
(158) 



Church Letters. 



159 



dial, Christian woman, and they welcomed 
her with warm hearts and both hands, 
and she was a part of the church from 
the very first Sabbath of her life in the 
place. 

If all church members, upon removing 
from one place to another, would take 
their letters with them and hand them to 
the pastor on the very first Sabbath of 
their appearance within the bounds of the 
new congregation, the efficiency of the 
general church would be increased very 
largely over what it is now, and multi- 
tudes of persons who are annually lost 
to the church would be kept in warm, 
vital, cordial relations to it and its work. 
But too many do not do so. 

I remember another case very plainly. 
I noticed a strange lady in the church one 
Sabbath, and, hastening, overtook her on 
the church steps, spoke to her, learned 
her name and address, and called at her 
home that week. I found that she was a 
member of the Presbyterian Church in 
another city, that she had been in her 
new home for two months, had not been 
at church except on the one occasion, and 
was feeling hurt because she had not been 
called on by the ladies of the church. She 



160 Pastoral Memories. 



did not seem to realize that this was un- 
reasonable since she had not made her- 
self known. During the next few weeks 
quite a number of the ladies, at my re- 
quest, called to see her, but she met them 
as though she were suffering a grievance. 
Once in a while she came to church, but 
hurried out at the close of the service 
without waiting to be spoken to, and did 
not attend the social meetings. At last, 
after a great deal of urging, she brought 
her letter, but she had become known as 
a complainer and unfriendly, and she 
never entered heartily into the life and 
work of the church. She had thrown away 
her opportunity. 

Various are the excuses people give for 
not presenting their letters promptly. 
They do not know how long they are to 
remain, or they do not know whether 
•they will like the new church, or they do 
not want to leave the old church home, 
where all their friends are, and they hold 
aloof and neglect to make friends when 
they first come, and establish a reputa- 
tion for unfriendliness and offishness, un- 
til people get tired of making advances 
and resent their attitude and let them 
alone. How much better if they would 



Church Letters. 



161 



make friends by showing themselves 
friendly and ready to go to work for 
Jesus Christ in their new home. 

Sometimes pastors are to blame for 
this. A lady wrote to her pastor for her 
letter but, as he did not wish his church 
roll diminished, he insisted that she let 
her name remain where it was, and she 
was compelled to, although she knew 
that by so doing she could do little good 
in either place We are glad there are 
few such pastors in the Church as this 
one. Whatever ministers to the health of 
the whole body is good for each particular 
part of the body, and the rule should be 
carefully adhered to that members are to 
be counseled and urged to take their let- 
ters with them in case of removal and de- 
posit them at once, even though the resi- 
dence may be short. 

There are scores, if not hundreds, of 
thousands of unattached Presbyterian 
church members throughout the country. 
Each pastor knows of a score, more or 
less, who are living within the bounds of 
his congregation who should become con- 
nected, by letter, with his own church. 
He wearies himself with his oft-repeated 
invitations, often unappreciated and neg- 



162 Pastoral Memories. 



leeted. Would that there were some way 
to compel these people to be faithful to 
their vows. 

It may be that this is the sifting pro- 
cess whereby a large part of the uncon- 
verted membership is separated from 
those who are converted. It is sad to 
think that there are members who show 
by so light a trial as removal that they 
are without vital grace in their hearts. 
It would seem that those who really love 
Jesus Christ and serve him in one place 
and church will love him no less and 
serve him no less faithfully even on com- 
ing into a new place of residence. 



KNOWING PEOPLE IN THEIR HOMES. 

There is nothing, perhaps, in my whole 
line of effort as a pastor that I look back 
upon with more varied emotion than my 
attempts to do house-to-house visiting. 
Carefully and conscientiously I carried out 
my rule to call at each home in my con- 
gregation three times a year, oftentimes 
wondering what good I was accomplishing 
by it, sometimes fearing that it was very 
little, and yet assured, all the time, that I 
should be completely ineffective without 
it. It certainly kept me in touch with my 
people, and manifested the friendliness 
which I unquestionably felt, and enabled 
me to find out new comers, and extend my 
pastoral acquaintance among them. 

The people whom I saw oftenest at 
church, and who were the most faithful in 
every way, were the ones who showed me 
the truest and gentlest kindness when I 
called at their homes. Those who were the 
most inattentive to their religious duties, 
and who were most seldom at public wor- 
ship, were the ones who were most exact- 
(163) 



164 Pastoral Memories. 



ing in their demands to be called on, and 
the most difficult to approach pleasantly 
and profitably in their homes. "You have 
not been here for a long time," is not a 
pleasant greeting. "It's a mighty long 
time since you've been here," is a slight 
variation whose lack of culture does not 
make any less displeasing. I have heard 
them both many times, and I suppose every 
pastor has, and often when I was not con- 
scious of any delinquency or neglect. 
Once in a while the expression of greet- 
ing came in such words as "You're quite 
a stranger." Sometimes I might have an- 
swered: "I have been here since you 
have been at church," but, for the sake 
of peace and dignity, refrained and turned 
to other themes. 

I have been told: "Now, you've nothing 
to do between Sundays, and you might as 
well come to see us often, and stay all 
day." To spend a whole day at each of 
three hundred places would consume three 
hundred working days of the year in this 
one single item, and one single round, and 
leave no time for anything else, but these 
did not fully comprehend what they said, 
and I freely forgave and did not chide 
them. I understood these persons, and 



Knowing People in their Homes. 165 



many of those who greeted me with "It's 
a long time since you were here," to be 
attempting to express appreciation and 
their desire to see me often, and a pastor 
can overlook infelicitous expressions if 
they are made by those who are warm- 
hearted in their friendship for him. 

During my first year's work, in charge 
of a frontier church, and before I had com- 
pleted my theological course, the people 
of my congregation, realizing that my sal- 
ary was small and desiring, in the kind- 
ness of their hearts, to augment it as much 
as practicable, offered that I should 
"board around" with them, and this I did, 
lodging in my study in the church. I never 
had such a year, before or since, as re- 
gards facilities for knowing my people. I 
was made one of the family, in a dozen 
families with whom I stayed for a month 
each. It was one constant expression of 
kindness and good will. I came to know 
them familiarly. I learned to talk with 
them as my very familiar and intimate 
friends, young and old. The church was 
carried right into those homes, as we 
talked over its interests together from day 
to day and from week to week. The fami- 
lies themselves became a part of the life 



166 



Pastoral Memories. 



of the young minister, as lie came to know 
them and love them and counsel with 
them. As to the advisableness of this plan 
1 have no advice to offer, but I know one 
thing for a fact, and that is, that this little 
church doubled its membership during the 
year, and I have never had this experience 
during any year since. 

If I were to live my ministerial life over 
again, I would lay more stress on the mat- 
ter of getting hold of the people and win- 
ning them personally for Christ and his 
church. This should be the supreme thing, 
all the time. I was never conscious of 
overlooking this, but I now see how I 
might have made it more emphatic. Every- 
thing else should be subsidiary to this. 
Every effort, in the pulpit and out, in so- 
cial life and in every department of pas- 
toral influence, should be tributary to the 
result of reaching human hearts and win 
ning them for the service of Christ. 

It is a pleasure to look over my list of 
names of nearly one thousand persons 
whom I have welcomed into the church, 
and which I hope still to see increased. 
Each one of those names stands for an in- 
dividual in whom I have been personally 
and lovingly interested. But there were 



Knowing People in their Homes. 167 



others in whom I felt as vital an interest, 
whose names I was not successful in 
adding to that list, and over whom I still 
sorrow. 



THE SENSE OF PERSONAL SIN. 



"I do not think that I need to be con- 
verted. I am not very bad as it is, and I 
believe I am getting better all the time." 
Such were thie words addressed to me by 
a young man, one evening, following an 
evangelistic service and in a conversation 
in which I was trying to attract his at- 
tention to the fact of his need of Christ 
as his personal Savior. He was amiable 
and attractive, and in many ways was like 
the young man whom Jesus loved as he 
looked upon him. Like that young man, 
also, he would not be brought to an ac- 
ceptance of the spiritual life. He was 
self-satisfied. He would not look up high 
enough to see God, and he would not look 
within deep enough to see the sinfulness 
of his own heart. To the casual observer 
who noticed only his amiable qualities, he 
did not seem far from the kingdom of 
heaven. How near he came I do not know, 
but as the years went by reverses came to 
him in a business and in a social way, 
and he took his own life, leaving behind 
(168) 



The Sense of Personal Sin. 169 



him the sad story of a blasted and disap- 
pointed career. 

It is a dangerous thing to have a slight 
sense of sin. One is in danger of not com- 
ing to Christ for salvation. The people 
who are misled by the so-called Christian 
Science into believing that there is no such 
thing as sin are the least probable of all 
persons to come in humility and confes- 
sion, to Christ and accept his saving grace. 
This false and deluding system denies the 
facts as set forth in the Word of God as 
to sin, and, of course, they deny the truth 
of the gospel as to salvation through Jesus 
Christ. In this way they set at defiance 
the true science of life and contradict all 
that is distinctively Christian in doctrine, 
and show that they have no right to either 
word that they parade so ostentatiously 
in their chosen title of "Christian Science." 

It is as when a man is dangerously ill 
and does not know it. A man had a se- 
vere headache which he bore for a long 
time, neglecting to consult a physician, 
until a fever became fastened upon him 
which resulted in his death. Had he ap- 
prehended the dangerous nature of his 
malady, he might have been saved in its 
earlier stages. He did not believe himself 



(12) 



170 Pastoral Memories. 



sick, and hie did not think that he needed 
a physician. But lie made a great mistake. 
Another .man injured his finger, but did 
not think he needed to be concerned. He 
let it alone and it grew worse. Still it 
continued to grow worse, until blood-poi- 
soning resulted, leading to his death. He 
made a great mistake. He did not think 
he was in danger, and he neglected the 
help he might have had from his physician. 
But neither of these men made so great a 
mistake as the one who does not believe 
himself to be a sinner and neglects the 
great salvation of Jesus Christ. 

One of the greatest evangelists of the 
present day preached in my church one 
night a siermon on the guilt and danger 
of neglect of Christ, insisting that 
no sin was so great as the simple 
failure to believe on Christ, and 
pointing out the fact that even moral 
men might be involved in this sin. 
The next morning I met a gentleman, a 
member of my congregation, for whom i 
had warm personal regard, but wiho held 
himself aloof from professed following of 
Christ. He was very much disturbed by 
the sermon and very greatly offended. "He 
made me out entirely too bad," he said, 



The Sense of Personal Sin, 171 



"I do not believe I am in the danger he 
said I am, and I do not like it." All that 
I could say could not change him from the 
attitude expressed by the words, "He made 
me out entirely too bad." The gospel could 
not be made over to suit his views, how- 
ever, as a physician can not change his 
prescription to suit a patient's diagnosis 
of his own condition. A man is in great 
danger when he will not believe that he 
is a sinner needing Christ, and so far as 
I know, this excellent moral gentleman 
has never come to a personal acceptance 
of the saved life as a free gift from the 
hands of Christ. 

It is not the Bible, nor the Church, nor 
the preaching that is the cause of sin, nor 
is God the author of it. There is sin where 
the Bible and the Church of Christ have 
not gone. The physician does not pro- 
duce disease, although he knows it when 
he sees it and devotes his life to its 
cure. We need to recognize our own need, 
and the need of others, of an interest in 
Christ, and no false sense of security must 
keep us from presenting and accepting 
him as the only hope of our sinful race. 



SOME RULING ELDERS I HAVE 
KNOWN. 



I feel like paying a tribute of respect 
and affection to the noble and devoted 
elders with whom I have been associated 
in churches in which I have been pastor, 
and I want to say that not one of them 
ever failed me or disappointed me. They 
were good men and true, who feared God 
and worked righteousness. At their ordi- 
nation they had made solemn vow to seek 
the peace and purity of the Church, and the 
spirituality, strength and self-sacrificing 
devotion of these men have made one of 
the deepest impressions upon me in all my 
experience. 

In my first ministerial work, in the 
frontier church, into which I was Inducted 
by a fatherly and saintly sy nodical mis- 
sionary, I found no elders. It was one of 
the scores of churches organized by that 
indefatigable and intrepid pioneer, Dr. 
Sheldon Jackson, and, although it had 
quite a little group of members, there had 
never been an elder. "What shall I do 
without a session ?" was my perplexed in- 
terrogatory. And this synodical mission- 
(172) 



Some Ruling Elders I Have Known. 173 



ary, who was never worried by any ordi- 
nary difficulties, calmly answered: "You 
must do without until you can get one." 
"But how can I receive members?" "You 
must either be an Episcopal Bishop, and 
take them in on your own authority, or 
you must be a Oongregationalist, and let 
the people help you take them in. The 
principal thing is to get hold of the mem- 
bers. I will risk the rest." 

In that time and place, calling for ex- 
traordinary methods, I followed the direc- 
tions of my leader, and I had the pleasure 
of receiving into the church, and ordain- 
ing as elders, three men who served that 
church on and on for thirty years, faith- 
fully, devotedly and well, carrying it on 
through its growth and development into a 
strong and well-established organization. 
How much that church owes to those el- 
ders no one may know. Self-sacrificing, 
single-hearted, spiritually-minded, the peo- 
ple did well to rise up and call them 
blessed. 

Of all the elders whom I ever ordained 
I do not remember an unworthy or un- 
satisfactory man. They have been men 
upon whom I depended for counsel, and 
who set an example of integrity and 



174 Pastoral Memories. 



uprightness to the whole community in 
which they lived. The Presbyterian 
Church is strong in its eldership. Ordained 
to a high and holy office, they are, as a 
body of men, true to God and loyal to 
their Church. With sturdy convictions and 
intelligent understanding of their duties, 
they have cherished a sense of responsi- 
bility, and have prayed and worked and 
lived for the welfare of the Church. 

I have known some unworthy men in 
the eldership which I have temporarily 
supplied or visited, but their cases have 
been so unusual as to create the deepest 
surprise. There have been some ministers 
who have had to be deposed, and so there 
have been some elders, but in my own 
experience and personal observation I have 
been happy in observing the almost uni- 
formly high Christian character main- 
tained by the eldership of our Presby- 
terian Church. 

I remember how an aged minister once 
said to me: "One of the saddest experi- 
ences in your life will be when you are 
called on to bury your elders." I have 
found it so. I have found some of my 
choicest and best friends among these 
men. They were good advisers and pa- 



Some Ruling Elders I Have Known. 175 



tient helpers. Almost without exception 
they were older than myself, and, in many 
cases, much older, and, I have been com- 
pelled to stand beside the coffin and grave 
of a good many of them with deep sorrow 
in my soul. But they went away with a 
good hope through grace, and I am sure 
that they have gone to be with the Lord. 

The Presbyterian Church has need of 
many good and strong elders. Over thirty 
thousand of these men are found in the 
sessions of our more than eight thousand 
churches. So long as these men are in- 
telligent as to the doctrines and govern- 
ment of the Church, are pure and true 
in character, prayerful and believing, 
beneficent in giving and working, fashion- 
ing their lives on the New Testament direc- 
tions for elders, and zealous for the ar 
vancement of the cause of Christ, there 
will be no great falling back in the ranks 
of the membership, and no letting down o 
the Standard of Christ. Army officers 
can do great things if they have good 
soldiers, and, on the other hand, soldiers 
can win great victories under good and 
great officers. And so, when I think of 
the elders of the Presbyterian Church, 1 
thank God and take courage. 



A DANGEROUS ERROR AND DELUSION. 



I was called at one time to conduct thie 
funeral of two aged people, husband anu 
wife, who had died but a few hours apart, 
and who were buried at the sarnie time in 
one grave. They were greatly devoted to 
each other, and during their last illness 
had been in adjoining rooms and could 
speak to one another. They were both 
members of my church and were sincerely 
pious people. The husband had suffered a 
long illness with occasional apparent re- 
coveries followed by relapsies. An officious 
"Christian Science" neighbor had frequent- 
ly called on him, announcing that she in- 
tended to cure hiim. One day, calling to 
see him, I found him very greatly im- 
proved and in good spirits. "But what do 

you think?" said the wife. "Mrs. D 

was in here a while ago, and, finding him 
so much better, insisted that we should 
siign a paper certifying that she had healed 
him. But we told her that, even if he was 
better, she had not cured him. We have 
paid no attention to her at all. She was 
very angry because we would not do as 

(176) 



A Dangerous Error and Delusio-n. Ill 



she said, but so were we angry at her un- 
truthfulness and presumption." Had they 
acceded to her, she would have paraded 
the paper even after he had died, as so 
many of these certificates are paraded. As 
it was, these good people maintained their 
good sense and their Christian faith, and 
when they departed they went away as 
they had lived, trusting in him who had 
died for them, and who had prepared a 
place for them in heaven. 

An aged Presbyterian minister was laid 
as idle by a lingering illness. Some ill-bal- 
anced relatives were determined that ne 
should try the virtues of Mary Eddy's 
pagan vagaries, and had him placed in 
such circumstances that he was compelled 
to listen, two or three times, to the non- 
sensical and unchristian dissertations of 
one of .their rationalistic "lecturers." His 
every article of faith was contradicted aud 
his every sense of propriety was outraged. 
Feeble as he was in body, he was strong 
enough in mind to reject and repel the 
indignity that was offiered his understand- 
ing and his faith, though he did it more 
in sorrow than in, anger. Yet these people 
were anxious to parade the name of this 
aged and honored minister as one who 



178 



Pastoral Memories. 



had become a follower of this strange 
woman and her strange doctrines. Such 
is the cruelty and such the lack of good 
taste of those who become infatuated with 
this shallow falsehood. Hie told me of it, 
and I rejoiced that he had, like Job, even 
in the midst of afflictions and temptations, 
maintained his faith and integrity. 

Even if this false system should be the 
means of restoring physical health, in cer- 
tain cases, such is its departure from the 
principles that lie at the base of Christian 
truth and sound philosophy, faith and com 
mon sense, that the acceptance of it would 
be a tremendous price to pay for a merely 
material result. It would be like departing 
from honesty in order to make money. 
Money is a very good thing to have if one 
does not pay too large a price for it. But 
it is a merely material thing, and one can 
not afford to wreck himself morally and 
spiritually in order to possess it. Satan's 
maxim was that "all that a man hath will 
he give for his life." It depends on the 
man. Millions of men have given up their 
lives rather than do wrong. Satan could 
not conceive that this could be true, and he 
proceeded on this Satanic plan, and failed. 
So therre are many who think that people 



A Dangerous Error and Delusion. 179 



arte ready to be duped and to stultify their 
intellects and deny the faith of Christ in 
order to have physical health. They are 
mistaken. Comparatively few people are 
ready to trample on the eternal verities 
in favor, especially, of such a transparent 
fraud as this so-called "Christian Science." 

If people, however, of adult years, wish 
to take up with this foolishness, we pre- 
sume they must have the privilege of lav- 
ing on their own chosen level. But the 
pity of it is when they leave little children 
and real invalids to suffer at the gratifica- 
tion of their own undisciplined fancies, and 
are the instruments for the spread of dan- 
gerous contagious diseases which they con- 
ceal and leave unchecked. I have seen and 
known so much of the monstrosities of 
this evil thing, in the deceiving of the un- 
informed, the perverting of the simple 
faith of the unwary and the practicing of 
cruelty on those who needed medical at- 
tention and careful nursing,, that I raise 
my voice against it in indignant and 
philanthropic warming. 



THE DANGER OF DELAY. 



I was conducting an evangelistic meeting 
which had been running through several 
weeks, during the course of which about 
fifty persons were converted and united 
with the church. Among these were quite 
a number of young men, some of whom, in 
after years, became very active and useful 
in Christian work. My attention was called 
to one young man who was present night 
after night, who seemed deeply affected 
and yet who did not come to a full and 
clear decision. One night after service, a 
number of sympathetic young men in the 
group, I was talking with him, and urging 
him to commit himself to Christ. "It is 
just this way," he said, at last, "I want 
to be a Christian, and mean to be, but I 
have to do something this very week that 
a Christian ought not to do. I am going 
away for a few days, and will get through 
with it, and then I am coming back. I 
hope the meetings will be going on when 
I return, for I want to settle the matter 
and be a Christian before they close." I 
urged him not to delay; not to put Christ 

(180) 



The Danger of Delay, 181 



away from him by doing what Christ could 
not bless him in. I told him that if a 
Christian could not do this thing, he ought 
not to do it, and that he ought to ask God 
to keep him from it. I pressed upon him 
the fact that he needed Christ now in this 
very crisis of his life, and should not defer 
acceptance of him. All that could be said 
did not change him. What he had in mind 
I never knew. He wept as he spoke of it. 
That was the last night I ever saw him. 
I never heard of him again. I greatly 
feared that, coming so close to the king- 
dom, he might not come In, after all. It 
is so dangerous to let anything come be- 
tween the soul and Christ. 

I preached a sermon once from the text: 
"Remember Lot's Wife," and spoke on 
the danger of the love of the world. I 
urged an immediate decision for Christ, 
fleeing for safety at his gracious invita- 
tion, and accepting life and salvation, 
rather than yielding to the solicitations 
of the world with the danger of being too 
long detained and finally destroyed. W T alking 
home, after service, with a gentleman, he 
said: "I heard a very earnest sermon on 
that same text ten years ago. The preach- 
er told us we were all in great danger, but 



182 Pastoral Memories. 



here I am now." "Did he tell the truth 
in his sermon?" "Yes, I suppose so, but 
here I am now." "Yes, you are still living, 
if that is what you mean, but are you any 
nearer the saved life, or are you farther 
away?" "I do not know about that," he 
answered. "I am afraid," I said to him, 
"that you think you are all right simply 
because you have not died. This is not 
the point. The preacher urged you to come 
to Christ. He was right in so doing. It 
is dangerous to delay. Perhaps some who 
heard the sermon that day have died with- 
out coming to Christ, and, if so, it is not 
all right with them. You ought to have 
been serving him all these ten years. You 
are in danger. You ought not to delay any 
longer. This is God's voice to-day calling 
you again." 

Many people think that the mere fact 
of continuing in life proves that the calls 
to a prompt acceptance of Christ are not 
well-founded. But Christ should be accept- 
ed without delay. Delay means rejection, 
and continued rejection means a hardening 
of the heart and a searing of the conscience, 
and the growing probability that one will 
never believe and be saved. It is a dan- 
gerous thing to put off the matter of re- 



The Danger of Delay. 183 



ligion. One grows away from it, and hard- 
ens and becomes past feeling, and it comes 
to be too lat/e. 

Dr. Finney once represented the evil 
spirits in the world of darkness called into 
council to consider the best way to stop a 
revival that was dn progress. One proposed 
to go and tell the people that there was 
nothing in religion, that there was no God, 
no heaven, no hell, no immortality, no 
truth in the Bible. He was told that he 
could not succeed, because the people, for 
the most part, would not believe him. 
Another proposed to tell them that there 
was no future punishment, no need for re- 
pentance, no meaning to conversion, no 
call for prayer; but he was answered that 
human souls could not be deceived in this 
way. Another proposed to tell them that 
the Bible was true, the gospel of infinite 
importance, religion a duty and a privilege, 
but that there was no need for haste, one 
time being just as good as another for a 
decision. And with a burst of glee that 
filled the caverns of hell he was despatched 
to break up the revival, to turn men from 
salvation and to impede the work of Jesus 
Christ in winning souls to eternal life. 



FIRES THAT BURN BODY AND SOUL. 



A bright, happy and attractive young 
woman was sitting one day before a grat«- 
fire, sewing industriously on some part 01 
what was to be her wedding costume. 
Within a few weeks she was to be married 
to an estimable young man, and no doubt 
her fancy was weaving bright dreams as 
her shining needle wrought its flying stitch- 
es in the pretty fabric. She was a member 
of my church, having made a whole-heart- 
ed confession of Christ as her Savior a 
few months before. A spark flew out from 
the fire, fell upon her clothing, and before 
she knew it the flames were rising about 
her. Despite her frantic efforts she was 
burned to a crisp over almost her whole 
body, so that she died within a few hours. 
I shall never forget the sorrow and agony 
of those hours, the greater part of which 
I spent in the grief-stricken home, nor the 
words of the poor girl as she greeted me 
with the words: "Oh, isn't this awful V* 
Yes, it was awful that a sweet young girl 
should have her tender flesh burned and 
destroyed by the flames, and that her prom- 

(184) 



Fires that Bum Body and Soul. 185 



ising life should be so suddenly brought to 
so pathetic a termination. But I have seen 
what was even more terrible, for, notwith- 
standing her suffering* and the bereave- 
ment of her loving friends, she was spirit- 
ually prepared, and went away to a life and 
home of peace and gladness. 

I knew a young man, the son of wealthy 
and well-meaning parents, who started on 
a course of dissipation. The habit of drink- 
ing became fastened upon him, and the fires 
of hell raged within him. His patrimony 
was destroyed. Worse than this, his 
earthly prospects were fed to the flames. 
The hopes of his parents went down be- 
fore the consuming fire. His physical body 
was burned to the crisp in which drunk- 
ards endure continuous torture, and, worse 
than all, intellectual strength, purity of 
character and spiritual life were charred 
and blackened in the conflagration of perdi- 
tion. When he died and was buried, he 
was a more complete and more pitiful ruin 
than the body of the young woman who 
was burned as she sat sewing before the 
grate, for her soul went out fair and trust- 
ful to the blessed experiences of a happy 
eternity. Oh, it is awful to contemplate 
the ruin of this young man, and of other 

(13) 



186 



Pastoral Memories. 



young men whom I have known and over 
whose ruin I, with others, have mourned 
with sad and unavailing tears of regret. 

I was talking one day to a gentleman who 
was successful in the legal profession, and 
much sought for as an advocate at the bar. 
Said he: "I have every reason to think 
that I shall attain great age. Both my 
parents and all four of my grand parents 
lived to be more than eighty, and I have 
almost certain prospects of living to the 
same age. If so, I have twenty-five years 
yet at least." He was reminded that life 
and death are very uncertain, but he 
answered: "I do not think so> in my case.' 
In less than twenty-four months he was 
in his grave, brought there by his own self- 
indulgence in a habit which has slain pre- 
maturely its uncounted millions. This 
man, of great intellectual ability, and pro- 
fesssional and political prominence, could 
not keep the fires from kindling and con- 
suming when fed with the fuel that has 
caused more human bonfires than ever 
lighted the fields of Smithfield or the gar- 
dens of Nero. He numbered his days, or 
thought he did, and applied his heart unto 
folly and self-destruction. 



Fires that Burn Body and Soul. 



187 



There are some hotter and more destruc- 
tive flames than those that burn in ranges 
and grates and furnaces. There are fires 
that are kindled in the passions and ap- 
petites of men that consume life and char- 
acter, and that rage even here on earth 
in the hot and blasting heat of eternal 
perdition. 



PRACTICAL WORK FOR RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS. 



In my early ministry I lived for several 
years in a town in which there was no sa- 
loon and where the sentiment was very 
strong against permitting a saloon to exist. 
The good results of this freedom were 
everywhere apparent. During the whole 
time of my residence there the town was 
exempt from the curse of a licensed sa- 
loon, although several attempts were made 
to force one on the community. At one 
time an excellent hotel building had been 
erected and, in due time, leased to a man 
who came with fair promises to take pos- 
session. In a very short time he an- 
nounced his intention to make application 
for a license to sell liquor and to open a 
hotel bar. The people heard of this with 
much indignation. A popular meeting was 
called and a committee was appointed to 
visit the hotel-keeper and remonstrate. Of 
this committee, consisting of the school 
, superintendent, a bank president, a law- 
yer and two ministers, I was made chair- 
man and spokesman, and we called im- 
(188) 



Practical Work for Righteousness. 189 



mediately upon the new corner. I told him 
that if he would confine himself to his 
legitimate business we would encourage 
and help him in every way possible, but 
that if he persisted in a course which was 
wrong and detestable to our people, we 
would try to prevent him from securing 
the license and, if he succeeded in getting 
it, would oppose him in every possible, 
legitimate and righteous way. I told him 
that we were determined that neither he 
nor any one else should curse and debauch 
our community by selling liquor. Our at- 
titude and words took him by surprise 
"So," said he, "you are determined to rule 
or ruin, are you?" I told him that we did 
not wish to ruin him or any one else, but 
that we were determined to rule in the 
matter of preventing him from bringing 
ruin to our town through the sale of liquor. 
The result was that he went no further, 
realizing that he would be thwarted, and 
we were saved the shame and evil of a 
saloon. 

In another place, some years afterward, 
I resisted the re-issuance of a license to 
a saloonkeeper in my neighborhood, and 
prevented it, although I was told that there 
had been no refusal of a license by the 



190 Pastoral Memories. 



commissioners in that county for eleven 
years. I secured signatures to the re- 
monstrance from nearly all the people of 
the neighborhood, but could not persuade 
any of them to appear with me in the com- 
missioners' court at the trial, which lasted 
through two days. But a determined re- 
sistance, by the assistance of two good 
lawyers who contributed their services, 
carried the day. 

From my experience in these, and other 
instances, I am persuaded that, under the 
advanced legislation which has been se- 
cured in many of our States in these days, 
in the form of local option regulations; 
the saloon could be driven out of many 
communities in which it is still intrenched, 
by means of determined and persistent ef- 
fort. And it is worth while to organize 
the opposition and press it on to a suc- 
cessful issue. 

The struggle for righteousness must be 
kept up in every community. If the agita- 
tion is not over one thing, it should be for 
another. The education in good morals 
is a practical matter. It is not to be con- 
fined to theories. It is not to be of the 
letter or of mere sentiment. Character 
develops under the influence of action. 



Practical Work for Righteousness. 191 



Conscience needs the constant, quickening 
touch of consecrated effort. Concrete ac- 
tivity is a greater educator than the 
enunciation of merely abstract truth. 

Let sermons be preached on all the mo- 
ralities, so as to build up and develop the 
ethical side of life, but for the training 
in righteousness and the development of 
lofty living let the saloon be fought out, 
the gambling den be driven out, and other 
forms of evil be ostracised. In addtion to 
all this let active work be done in build- 
ing up the kingdom of G-od, and under these 
influences, blessed by the Holy Spirit, the 
character will have a most excellent and 
gracious development for resisting temp- 
tation and doing the holy will of God. 
Boys and girls taught and trained to op- 
pose, practically and persistently, such 
evils, will be very apt to develop moral 
backbone that will serve a most excellent 
purpose in the days of coming life. 



A LESSON IN CHURCH COMITY. 



Some years ago I had charge of a church 
which was attended by quite a good many 
Congregationalists who, although they re- 
sided in the community and were evan- 
gelical and friendly people, could not be 
prevailed upon to bring their letters and 
become members of the church. They were 
not quite satisfied, an1 thought that, per- 
haps, they might organize a Congregational 
Church. This would have made two small, 
struggling churches of the same kind of 
people in a town that was only large 
enough to support one to advantage. 

About two miles away, in another town 
was a Congregational Church, and in the 
same community were a good many Pres- 
byterians who were holding aloof, with 
the expectation of starting a church of 
their own at some time, but with the al- 
most certain prospect of a long and weari- 
some struggle for existence. I visited these 
Presbyterians, became acquainted with the 
conditions and advised them, unqualifiedly 
to become members of the Congregational 
Church, which was ministered to by a very 

(192) 



A Lesson m Church Comity. 193 



earnest, evangelical and godly minister. 
They accepted my counsel, and soon they 
became members of his church. 

The Congregationalists of my town heard 
of it. They met me with open faces and 
with warm hands and hearts, and soon en- 
rolled themselves in our Presbyterian 
Church. They told ire that the evident 
fairness of my course in the matter had 
appealed to them, and they were perfectly 
satisfied. The two pastors exchanged pul- 
pits one Sabbath, and the matter was still 
further explained. The result has been 
that during all these years the two church- 
es have lived and thrived in the two ad- 
joining towns, as none of them could had 
there been two of each denomination in 
each place. I have great satisfaction as 
I look back to my part in this arrange- 
ment, which has made for the life and 
growth of the cause of Christ. 

With our shifting population it often 
happens that the members of many evan- 
gelical denominations are found in one 
community, and with not enough of any 
one of them to make a strong and self- 
supporting church. lit would be possible, 
say, to organize five little churches of 
twenty members each that would always 



194 Pastoral Memories. 



be weak and useless, but it might also be 
posible for them all to unite in one body 
with one hundred members, making a use- 
ful, self-supporting and aggressive little 
church. This latter plan seems to be far 
better. To this end scattered individuals 
and families would better unite with the 
evangelical church where they live and 
help to make it a strong and effective or- 
ganization. People and families may do 
this with the understanding that if it ever 
becomes advantageous to organize a church 
of their own denomination they may with- 
draw, with kind feelings, and with no 
friction. 

At one time I received quite a number of 
Cumberland Presbyterians into the church 
o which I was pastor, with this under 
standing. The time came when they felt 
that they could support a church of their 
own in that community, and they with- 
drew in good spirit from the Presbyterian 
Church. The new church, in an eligible 
location, thrived for several years, and has 
now become a Presbyterian Church, having 
maintained friendly relations during all 
this time and having no difficulties now 
as to entering the united body. 

It is best for people, ordinarily, to be 



A Lesson in Church Comity. 195 



connected witn the church where they re- 
side and, if there is none of their own, to 
go into the one the most like it. Then, 
when they remove, or a church of tJbueir 
own is organized, they may resume their 
membership in the body to which they 
feel they really belong. There is great 
danger that people may drift unless they 
are anchored right where they live, or so 
close to it that they feel the stiff strain 
of responsibility. 

The Presbyterian Church can not have 
an organization in every village, school 
district and city ward of the whole country. 
It must do its full part in evangelizing 
the nation, and must maintain churches 
wherever practicable and best. In order 
that our people may all have church homes 
and do their best work for the cause of 
Christ, we must maintain friendly relations 
with other evangelical bodies, encouraging 
mutual exchanges of church members 
wherever this is best. I have always been 
glad for the lesson in church comity I 
learned in my early ministry. 



THE BLACK SHEEP OP THE FAMILY. 

I have been led to notice that nearly 
every family has some special cause of 
sorrow or shame. Nearly every home has 
some skeleton hidden away in the closet; 
nearly every household has some black 
sheep in the fold. A rather wide and in- 
timate acquaintance has made me know 
that a great many families have cause for 
disappointment in the lives of some mem- 
bers of their immediate circle of relatives 
and friends. Where there are exceptions 
to this there are great reasons for grati- 
tude to GrOd. 

Illustrations are found in the families 
of the Bible, in many of which there were 
sorrowful and serious deflections from the 
laws of God on the part of parents or chil- 
dren, or both. In some way or other, in 
some direction or other, all are touched 
by some mark or stain of human weak- 
ness, thereby leading to humility before 
God and charity in judgment of others. 

A most faithful and earnest Christian 
wife and mother, who trained her children 
for Christ, had the sorrow of seeing her 

(196) 



The Black Sheep of the Family. 197 



husband living as an outspoken unbeliever 
and drunkard. Sensitive and shrinking 
as she was, and opposed to infidelity and 
intemperance, she had to face these things 
day by day, with a breaking heart, in the 
life of her husband, and, so far as I know, 
there came to her no relief from this bur- 
den. 

A lovely Christian family had to bear 
the great grief of seeing a son led away 
into a life of dissipation from which he 
would not be reclaimed. A shadow was 
cast on all the family by his life, and yet 
they were as sincere and faithful as peo- 
ple could be. 

A gentleman of great integrity, unques- 
tioned in his probity and honor, had the 
grief of seeing a son entangled with a 
band of counterfeiters and pursuing a 
course which led to prison. 

A ministerial associate whose life was 
purity itself, and whose son followed him 
into the ministry, had the overwhelming 
sorrow of a vicious and uncontrollable 
daughter whose life was an unblushing 
record of evil. 

A wife told me, with tears of shame and 
distress, that her husband had communi- 
cated to her and her child a most evil 



198 Pastoral Memories. 



disease, which must burden and disable 
them for life. 

A most devoted family had the sorrow 
of seeing their beautiful little daughter led 
astray by a villain, and she and her child 
left to be members of the parental home, 
with a shadow over them that nothing 
could lift. 

A boy, striving hard to achieve a place 
in life, struggled hard in his exemplary 
endeavors against the fact that his father 
ended his days in the State prison for a 
terrible crime. 

One might make out a list of scores of 
such cases in his own personal acquain- 
tance. A true minister needs to be very 
sympathetic and very discreet. He must 
come close to people in their sorrows and 
disappointments, and must try to help 
them, but he must be wise not to hurt or 
offend them, and he must keep the secrets 
reposed in him as inviolable as the grave. 

Oftentimes he may be of practical help. 
A young man who belonged to a godly fam- 
ily, came to me in great distress. He had 
been indicted for an offence which must 
certainly land him in the penitentiary for 
years if he were convicted. I laid the mat- 
ter before the United States District At- 



The Black Sheep of the Family. 199 



torney, told him the circumstances, and 
convinced him that it would be a good 
thing to nolle the case, which he did. The 
young man went a thousand miles away, 
and to-day, as an elder in the Presbyterian 
Church, and in useful professional life, is 
living to the glory of God. 

The religion of Jesus Christ does a great 
deal more than teach people to be sorry 
for those who are in trouble. It sets 
itself to the task of reclaiming the lost. I 
have seen many a wanderer reclaimed. 
Christ told us of a family of two sons, one 
of whom was a black sheep, but who came 
back from his prodigal experiences into a 
life made white by repentance, forgiveness 
and restoration. Some of those who seem 
most hopeless are most easily touched by 
the divine grace when it is brought to bear 
forcefully upon their lives. Let us never 
lose heart, and let us never think any one 
hopeless, so long as Christ is able to save 
even to the uttermost. 

Some one says that in the first chapter 
of Matthew are four classes of families. 
There are some bad fathers with bad sons, 
which is sorrowful but not surprising; bad 
fathers with good sons, which is a sur- 
prise that always brings gladness; good 



200 



Pastoral Memories. 



fathers with bad sons, which is a cause 
for profound grief; and good fathers with 
good sons, over which both heaven and 
earth may well rejoice. In not every house- 
hold is there the stain of shameful sin, 
but, wherever there is, the blood of Jesus 
Christ, if accepted, can cleanse from it all. 



REVIVALS. 



There are some members in each church 
who are always, apparently, in a state of 
revival. If all the Church and all the 
world were to come into the condition in 
which they live, there would be but little 
to desire in realizing the kingdom of God 
on earth. They carry with them into their 
business and home life a kind, pure and 
just spirit. They deal justly, love mercy 
and walk humbly before God. They at- 
tend the services of the church faithfully, 
give of their means liberally for the local 
and the missionary work of the Church, 
pray, read God's Word, live consistently, 
and are helpful and sympathetic and 
earnest in trying to advance the cause of 
Christ. They live near to God, are deeply 
interested in religious life and work, and, 
in case of special evangelistic efforts, are 
constant in their presence and their pray- 
ers. If all were living in this way there 
would be little left to desire. 

A revival Is a time in which the Church 
in general comes up to the plane usually 

( 14 ) ( 201 ) 



202 Pastoral Memories. 



occupied by these faithful ones. The 
house of God is crowded; the Word of God 
as preached is listened to with deep at- 
tention; a spirit of prayer and praise is 
manifest; the things of God are lovingly 
considered, and souls are converted and 
added to the Church. There are some 
who condemn and oppose revivals. It is 
enough to say that they are not those who 
are anxious for the conversion of souls and 
the spread of the gospel. 

I find from my records that of all those 
whom I have received into the Church, 
numbering something near a thousand, the 
larger part came in special times of re- 
vival. Those who thus came have been 
as steadfast in their Christian life as oth- 
ers who came in other circumstances. 

I have known some to come alone, or 
almost alone, emphasizing the fact that 
they did not wish to appear to be moved 
by excitement. Some of these persons 
proved to be converted, while others were 
simply self-deceived or self-conceited and 
lacking the grace of God. The coming of 
one genuinely-converted soul is a mani- 
festation of the reviving work of God's 
Holy Spirit. The conversion of many at 



Revivals. 



203 



one time is the evidence of a wider and 
larger work from on high. 

It is possible that there may be a merely 
man-made excitement or enthusiasm, and 
the affecting of many at such a time; but 
it is equally possible that the cool and 
deliberate coming of one person imay mark 
a merely human resolution and be devoid 
of divine grace. I have believed, and still 
believe, in the reality of conversions which 
occur many at a time. The conversion 
of the three thousands on the day of Pen- 
tecost was not a mere matter of human 
excitement, nor were the occasions in my 
own ministry, I believe, when ten, twenty, 
forty or fifty have given themselves to God 
during one special time of revival. 

My experience with professional evan- 
gelists has not been extensive, but some 
of it has been very happy. A work 
led by Dr. L. W. Munhall was the means 
of bringing many to Christ and of largely 
transforming the Church and community. 
Dr. J. L. McKee, of Danville, of blessed 
memory, spent three weeks with me at 
one time, and his work was most rich and 
salutary to the spiritual life of very many. 
Rev. Henry L. Morey, while yet a pastor, 



204 



Pastoral Memories. 



spent two weeks with us at one time, and 
his forceful and winning influence there 
was prefigurative of the large work he 
has since done in the evangelistic field. 
Dr. W. P. Kane, afterward President of 
Wabash College, while a pastor, helped 
me most blessedly at one time for a week, 
as did Rev. Dr. W. A. Hutchison, Rev. Dr. 
L. M. Gilleland, and Rev. Dr. H. M. Payn- 
ter. Other pastors have shown the pos- 
session of rare evangelistic gifts while 
assisting me for short periods, and I have 
found that the mutual exchange of neigh- 
boring pastors is a fruitful source of evan- 
gelistic blessing. 

In my own exchanges and work in va- 
cant churches I have spent many months 
in solid services, week after week, and I 
have become assured that such times are 
most fruitful occasions for winning souls 
to a really warm-hearted and converted 
life of service for Jesus Christ. 

I believe the keynote of every minister's 
life should be the consecrated determina- 
tion to win souls for Christ. Constant and 
persistent evangelism should be the dom- 
inant note in all the work of the evangeli- 
cal church. If I were to begin my minis- 



Revivals. 



205 



try over it would be with the purpose to 
be more unremitting in efforts to secure 
conversions. I would urge it upon every 
young minister and every church. Souls 
won for Christ are for the joy of the heart 
and for a crown O'f rejoicing, to the min- 
ister, to the church, and to Christ. 



UNITING WITH THE CHURCH. 

I was at one time pressing upon the at- 
tention of a young man the importance of 
accepting Christ and making a profession 
of his faith by uniting with the Church. 
He did not feel the need of taking such 
a step and, in opposing my counsels, made 
use of an expression which has often sug- 
gested itself to me as an illustration. 

He said: "I do not see the need or pro- 
priety of doing what you urge. If I am 
a Christian, I do not need to say anything 
about it. I do not go around the com- 
munity saying that I love my wife. That 
is to be taken for granted and, besides, it 
is my own concern. ,, 

My answer to him was to the effect that 
he had used a strangely unfortunate illus- 
tration in seeking to excuse himself from 
a profession of faith in Christ. "Suppose 
you do not go around telling people that 
you love your wife, there was a time when 
you told her plainly that you loved her 
and asked her to be your wife. But in 
order that she might become your wife, you 
secured the legal consent of the State; 

( 206 ) 



Uniting With the CJmrch. 207 



you assembled her friends and yours as 
tnose most intimately concerned; you made 
tile solemn and outspoken statement that 
you loved her, to the pastor who united you 
in marriage, and you promised that you 
would cherish her faithfully and lovingly 
as long as God should grant you both to 
live. It was not simply your own con- 
cern. You could not have had her for your 
wife without making a public profession 
of your love for her, and a solemn cove- 
nant to be faithful and loving to her for 
life." 

It seems to me that this is marvelously 
near to what is meant by being a Chris- 
tian and making a public profession of 
faith in uniting with the Church. Each 
individual, as he hopes and seeks for a 
sacred life, should become personally ac- 
quainted with Christ, and, accepting him 
as his own personal Savior, should tell 
him of his heart's spiritual love and trust 
as plainly and directly as one human lover 
declares his affections to the one whom 
he chooses out of all the world for life- 
alliance. Then, having accepted Christ and 
being personally sure that "my beloved is 
mine and I am his," the opportunity should 
be sought to confess him publicly in the 



208 Pastoral Memories. 



way he appoints; before the assembled 
friends of Christ in the Church, and in 
public covenant in response to the pastor 
of the church. 

Society concerns itself as to marriage 
in order to the perpetuation of the family 
and all that is involved in it for the in- 
terests of our human race. So is it a 
matter of divine and religious concern that 
all who come to love Christ shall publicly 
confess him and become members of his 
organized spiritual body on earth, in order 
to the perpetuation of the Church and all 
that is involved in it for the interests of 
the kingdom of God. 

We are not to live at haphazard in our 
social or our spiritual relations. We can 
not be a law to ourselves. We are but 
little, as individuals, but the institutions 
that God has ordained are great, and they 
are meant for, and are made up of, in- 
dividuals. The Church, the family and the 
State are divinely ordained, and we have 
no right to ignore or trample on either 
one of them or what they stand for. 

Some persons have undertaken to break 
and to break down the laws of the country 
in which they lived, but instead of being 
esteemed as patriots and good citizens they 



Uniting With the Church. 209 



have been counted as criminals or traitors. 
Some persons have chosen to set at defi- 
ance the laws governing the family, but 
instead of being accepted as valuable and 
lofty-minded people they have been recog- 
nized as vile, dangerous and disgusting. 
Some persons have seen fit to ignore God's 
sacred rules as to the service of Christ in 
the Church which he has himself organized, 
but when they thus disobey him they cer- 
tainly have no right to claim that their 
lives are what they ought to be. It is 
well, in all things, to live by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, 
and not be guided by the undisciplined and 
self-indulgent fancies of our own imagina- 
tion. 



OLD-FASHIONED BIBLE READING. 

There is a great deal being done to-day 
to promote and stimulate interest in the 
study of the Bible. It is well that we ap- 
prehend the need for this. The neglect 
of God's Word results in incalculable in- 
jury to individuals and to the community. 
For intellectual stimulus and culture, for 
moral development and training, for re- 
ligious instruction and helpfulness the 
Holy Scriptures are of inestimable value; 
and disregard for and ignorance of them 
result in inevitable deterioration, relig- 
iously, morally and intellectually, both in- 
dividually and socially considered. 

There is nothing to take the place of 
simple, old-fashioned, consecutive reading 
of the Bible, to make one acquainted with 
its contents. He who does not read and 
reread it will be ignorant of its contents. 
Lectures and classes and courses of in- 
struction will not secure knowledge of its 
truths to those who neglect to read it 
book by book, and chapter by chapter. It 
must be gone over again and again in or- 
der that one may be familiar with Its 

(210) 



Old-Fashioned Bible Reading. 211 



facts and teachings. All the helps in the 
way of text-books, concordances, com- 
mentaries, dictionaries, histories and 
geographies, will not make one acquainted 
with the Bible unless its sacred pages be 
read over and over again with thoughtful 
and careful diligence. 

A great part of my own use of the Bible 
has been in preparation for the pulpit, the 
prayer-meeting, the iSabbath-school and 
other departments of religious instruction. 
I have studied it in order that I might 
teach it, and in this way my reading and 
study have been, for the greater part, on 
detached portions and disconnected pass- 
ages. But I have read it, consecutively 
and for my own personal benefit, thirty 
times of which I have record. And I can 
bear witness to the increasing pleasure 
and profit which I have derived from this 
regular and systematic reading of the 
Bible. 

•Any plan which will secure the reading 
of the Scriptures by the members of the 
church or Sabbath-school will be found, in 
the long run, to have advantages over 
most of the teaching, however good it 
may be. I have known Sabbath-schools 
where the report is made each Sabbath of 



212 Pastoral Memories. 



the number of Bible chapters read during 
the week, and this, kept up for years, 
stimulates many to read the Bible 
through, perhaps many times. 

One will be amazed to find how many 
elders and teachers and superintendents 
will confess that they have never read the 
Bible entirely through. It is a pleasure 
that too many do not permit or train 
themselves to enjoy. Just recently sev- 
eral persons have told me they have 
never been entirely through the Bible. On 
the other hand several have told me, 
pleasurably, that they had finished read- 
ing the Bible, and it was very evident 
that they had a very wholesome and 
hearty satisfaction in having completed 
the book. Some who have not done so 
have before them a task and a pleasure 
the completing of which will add to their 
satisfaction and profit as well aa to their 
self-respect. 

I have been asked by some whether I 
considered the whole Bible of such im- 
portance as to call for equal attention to 
each part of it. I consider it all as God's 
Word, and I have, in all my ministry, put 
honor upon it and tried to win careful and 
prayerful attention to the whole of it 



Id-Fashioned Bible Reading. 213 



from all to whom I have preached and 
whom I have taught. Of course there are 
books and chapters and passages which 
stand out pre-eminently as containing 
the saving truths of the gospel. There 
are single verses which contain enough 
truth for the saving of the soul of the one 
who knows no more. Let each one be 
sure that he learns the vital and essential 
things of Jesus Christ. But all the Bible 
is important and is valuable for its special 
purposes. Each part is for doctrine or 
reproof or correction or instruction in 
righteousness, and is given us in order 
that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
oughly furnished unto all good works. 
And he who would get the best and entire 
good out of it must, at least, read it rev- 
erently and carefully in all its parts. 



"A VERY PECULIAR CASE." 

I often think of a conversation which I 
had with a young man some years ago, 
in which I urged him to an acceptance of 
Christ and devotion of his life to his serv- 
ice. To each plea he had some answer; 
to each argument some reason wherewith 
to excuse himself from a personal stand 
for Christ. He did not feel that he was a 
great sinner; he did not have any sense 
of ill-desert. He was a very beautiful and 
attractive young man, of gentle voice and 
gentle manners, much, I imagine, like the 
one whom Jesus, when he looked upon 
him, loved. He seemed to be so nearly 
saved that he did not feel the need of the 
Savior, and as we parted he said: "I think 
I am a very peculiar case." All that I 
could make out of the words, the tone, the 
smile, the handgrasp and the general atti- 
tude was that he felt quite self-satisfied 
and believed himself, in some way, an ex- 
ception to the rule that all mien are sin- 
ners and need the pardoning grace of God. 

(214) 



"A Very Peculiar Case: 215 



He was very polite and self-poised, as, with 
just a shadow of perplexity, he announced 
that he believed he did not care to take 
any interest in Christ just then. I think 
he still believes himself an exception to 
the rule that as sinners we need Christ. 

What is one to do in such a case as this? 
For it is not a rare case. There are many 
who are self-satisfied. There are many who 
feel no need of any help outside of them- 
selves. They are like the leper Naaman, 
who felt that Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
Damascus, were better than all the waters 
of Israel, and that he might wash in them 
and be clean, if it were a matter of wash- 
ing, instead of submitting to the humilia- 
tion of coming to the river Jordan. Many 
there are who think of their own morality, 
their own philosophy, their own theory of 
life, their own culture and character as 
being all that is necessary for their good 
standing and acceptance anywhere in God's 
universe. 

There is nothing to do but to take God at 
his word, and to declare his own testimony 
as to the dangerous and unsaved condition 
of those who are out of Christ. In some 
way God may bring the soul to a conscious- 



216 Pastoral Memories. 



ness of its sin and ill-desert. In some way 
there may come a revealing of itself to 
itself, and out of that revelation may come 
a sense of need of Christ and an acceptance 
of him. The Prodigal Son came to the 
realization of his sin and need when he 
was starving among the swine. So some 
persons do not realize that they are sin- 
ners, or capable of being sinners, until 
they fall into some terrible and extreme 
sin. It is easier sometimes to save great 
and disgusting sinners than it is to reach 
respectable moralists. Publicans and har- 
lots are sometimes more willing to be saved 
than nice and respectable people. 

Yet even the worst of sinners sometimes 
keep up their self-satisfaction to the last. 
I was talking to a man who bore on his 
face the evident marks of dissipation, who 
calmly answered me, "I know all about 
that. I am all right. I wish you would 
talk to those boys over there and get hold 
of them." The marks' of sin and death 
were on him, but he considered it not, 
and tried to assume that he was all right 
while his feet were on the hot road among 
the ashes and cinders of destruction. I 
have urged very sinful people, men and 



"A Very PemUar Case: 217 



women, to repentance, and have been 
patronized by them as they strove to have 
it taken for granted that neither God nor 
man could be anything less than pleased 
with their lives. 

Many a person considers himself a very 
peculiar case; an exception to rules that 
he will acknowledge have general applica- 
tion. Men see that the use of intoxicating 
drinks leads on to drunkenness and ruin, 
but many a one is surprised when he finds 
himself bound by the habit, because he 
thought of himself as an exception to the 
rule. Men know that gambling and petty 
embezzling lead on to wreck and ruin, but 
many a defaulter is surprised that it turns 
out in his own case according to the rule, 
for he thought of himself as peculiar and 
secure and all right. Many a man closes 
his ears and heart to the call of Christ 
and remains unsaved, dreamily imagining 
himself so peculiar as not to need the 
grace of God in his heart. 

The work of the Holy Spirit is to con- 
vince human hearts of sin, because they do 
not believe on Jesus Christ. The minister 
may go, like Nathan to David, and say, as 
plainly as did he to the king, "Thou art 



(15) 



218 



Pastoral Memories. 



the man," but unless the Holy Spirit has 
been there before him no real attention 
will be paid to his words. For the one who 
thinks himself a "peculiar case" there is 
help only in the Spirit of God. 



THE POWER OF ONE PERSON. 

It is one single vote that counts, often- 
times, for victory or defeat, and in our 
work for Christ and his Church we see 
many instances where one person has 
changed the whole face of affairs by his 
own personal attitude. I have organized 
four churches, and in three of these the 
organization resulted from the consecrated 
efforts of one person in each case. The 
church would not have been organized, at 
least at that time, had it not been for the 
determined activity of that one person. 

One person is not many, but if he is just 
where God wishes him to be he may do 
a great work, as Moses before Pharaoh, 
Elijah on Mt. Carmel, Jonah at Nineveh, 
or Paul in Europe. One woman was left 
as the only member of a little Indiana 
Church. Presbytery thought best to dis- 
solve the church. She absolutely refused 
to be dissolved. An evangelistic commit- 
tee came and held a meeting, and nearly 
fifty persons were converted and added to 
the church, so that it was greatly strength- 

(219) 



220 Pastoral Memories. 



ened, and remains a good church to-day. 
And this was much better than dissolv- 
ing it. 

A man died recently whose vote in the 
United States Senate once prevented the 
impeachment of a United States President. 
The man died in poverty and obscurity. 
He said he had been offered a hundred 
thousand dollars for his vote on what he 
considered the wrong side. He was a 
heavy loser, according to some measure- 
ments, but we are told that it is better to 
lose the whole world than to make ship- 
wreck of the soul. This man always felt 
that he had done right and preserved his 
manhood's integrity, and this cheered him. 
My own vote, at one time, saved a min- 
ister from being deposed. I have felt justi- 
fied, by some of the after results, in the 
course I took. 

I knew well a man who claimed to have 
secured the annexation of Texas to (the 
United States. As a young man he was a 
candidate for a seat in the legislature of 
his State. The election day was drawing 
near its close, and one voter at least had 
not appeared at his polling place. This 
young condidate walked through the wet 
and cold and mud to the man's house, and 



The Power of One Person. 221 



finding that he had not gone out from lack 
of a pair of boots, drew off his own, gave 
them to him, and walked back barefoot by 
his side, to find, by morning, that he had 
been elected by one vote to the legisla- 
ture. In this body a United States Sen- 
ator was elected by a majority of one vote, 
which he cast. The United States Senate, 
b> a majority of one vote, which this Sen- 
ator cast, took action which brought about 
the Mexican War and resulted in the an- 
nexation of Texas. So, right or wrong, 
this great end was actually effected by the 
young man who was willing to walk bare- 
foot through the mud for one vote. We 
never know what one person may ac- 
complish or what may be the result of a 
little special act of determined self-sacri- 
fice. 

It does not do to underestimate the im- 
portance of any one person. Something 
over a hundred years ago a Scotch pastor 
arose in his presbytery to make his an- 
nual report, and stated, with great dejec- 
tion and sorrow of heart, that only one 
person, and he a little boy, had been re- 
ceived into his church during the year. 
But the boy developed into the man, the 
centennial of whose magnificent mission- 



222 



Pastoral Memories. 



ary work in China has just been cele- 
brated. The old pastor would have felt 
great exultation had he been able to 
know beforehand of the wonderful, colos- 
sal work the Lord was to accomplish 
through his little Robbie Morrison. A pas- 
tor told me once that he had been holding 
a meeting for two weeks, with not a con- 
version, until at last one evening one little 
boy came forward. With that boy's com- 
ing the tide turned, and during the next 
two weeks he welcomed three hundred 
and seventy-five persons into the church. 
One person sometimes counts. 

Mr. John V. Farwell once said: "The 
world has yet to learn the power of one 
thoroughly consecrated man, and a young 
clerk, Mr. Dwight L. Moody, who was 
standing near, responded: "By God's help 
I will be that man." I once lost, by re- 
moval to another city, one of my highly- 
prized elders. After a few months the pas- 
tor to whom he had gone wrote to me: 
"It is a great thing to receive men who, 
as men go, count one for one. In this 
case this one man counts for five hundred 
ordinary men." You can never tell what 
any one person amounts to until that per- 
son is in a place of real responsibility. 



The Power of. One Person. 223 



Then he may make or destroy a church or 
a nation. 

Our Christian religion, as enunciated in 
the doctrine and government of our Pres- 
byterian Church, is calculated to develop 
the sense of personal duty and responsi- 
bility, and to make each individual Chris- 
tian ready to stand alone, and to die 
alone, if need be, for the sake of the truth 
and cause of Christ. 



GOD STRONGER THAN THE STORM. 

One of the great [present benefits of the 
religion of Jesus Christ is that it brings 
sustaining comfort in time of sorrow to 
the hearts of those who have accepted him 
as their Savior. This is just what he prom- 
ised his disciples. We may rely upon him 
in this as in everything. 

It is a matter of common Christian ex- 
perience that Christ fulfills his promises 
to his people. He is with them in time 
of trouble. The Holy Spirit dwells in their 
hearts when sorrow invades their homes. 
The heavenly Father draws near with his 
infinitely tender and gracious presence, and 
divine peace is the portion of those who 
take God at his word. 

One of the opportunities for a pastor's 
tenderest and most effective ministration 
comes when his people are in sorrow, and 
there will be no da*y in the whole year in 
which there will not be found some who 
are in affliction of body or of mind. To 
them let him go in the fullness of the 
blessing of the gospel of Christ. The pas- 
tor whose heart is a well-spring of sym- 
pathy will have abundant use for its con- 
stantly flowing supplies. 

( 224 ) 



Goa Stronger than tJie Storm. 225 



Not long since I met some dearly loved 
friends, a father and mother, who had 
been but recently bereaved by the death 
of their only child, a son of great prom- 
ise, around whom their affections had clus- 
tered with increasing tenderness as they 
realized themselves to be in declining 
years. My heart was stirred with most 
tender and loving sympathy. What lone- 
liness could be greater than this, when 
the only child is taken away and the home 
left desolate? 

The same day I met two other parents, 
who were also in God's bereaving provi- 
dence, entirely childless. But they had 
been the fond parents of seven delightful 
children, all of whom had grown up into 
the opening maturity of young manhood 
and womanhood, and who had been taken 
away, one by one, from their fond em- 
braces. What loneliness could equal that 
which comes into a home when seven 
bright, beautiful, talented sons and daugh- 
ters are thus swept away and the parents 
left to walk, hand in hand, the sorrowful 
path of life? 

Which of these experiences is the more 
severe let no human soul undertake to de- 
cide. In each case the burden is so heavy 



226 Pastoral Memories. 



that the unaided heart is crushed beneath 
it. But in each case God upholds and 
helps these suffering children of his love. 
These parents are all Christian people. 
They were Christians before the trouble 
came. In the time of brightness their 
hearts and lives were in God's keeping, 
and they gave their children to the Lord 
in life long before they were called upon 
to give them to him in death. God is with 
them to-day, and they feel assured that 
their beloved children are with God in his 
heavenly home. The storm has been one 
of great stress and sorrow, but the -still, 
small voice of God has come to their 
hearts out of it all. 

In my early ministry I had a dear 
friend, a classmate in seminary days, who 
was many years older than myself, and who 
had met with many bereavements and sor- 
rowful reverses before he had commenced 
his special ministerial preparation. One 
day he was telling me of his experiences. 
I answered him that I had never had any 
real sorrows, and that I feared that, when 
they came, they would break over me like 
a storm. I shall never forget how he sud- 
denly sprang up, facing me, with Both 
hands on my shoulders, and his eyes glow- 



God Stronger than the Storm. 227 



ing with tender enthusiasm, while he ex- 
claimed: "But isn't God stronger than the 
storm?" Yes, he is. Stronger than any 
and all the storms that have ever beat 
upon my life during all these years; strong^ 
er than all possible storms that can break 
over the life of any child of God, anywhere, 
any time. 

"Life has been to me all brightness, 
Glad each day and glad each morrow; 

All my burdens have been lightness; 
So I sometimes fear that sorrow 
Waiteth for me like a storm." 

Thus I spoke to one beside me, 
Who had long borne heavy crosses. 

Swift my brother turned to chide me: 
"Come all pain and grief and losses, 
God is stronger than the storm." 

Fell that truth like benediction, 

Full of peace and full of power; 
Whatsoe'er may be the affliction, 

Howsoe'er the tempest lower, 
God is stronger than the storm. 
And, my brother, still I thank you 

For those words of mild reproving; 
Deeply grateful, I address you; 

All these years experience proving 
God is stronger than the storm. 



RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES. 



A young man came to me at one time, 
saying that he wished to unite with the 
Church, and that he would do so on con- 
dition that I would baptize him by immer- 
sion. He told me that his wife, who was 
a member of a church in which baptism 
was performed by immersion, would also 
come with him on this condition. I had 
a long talk with him, during which I be- 
came convinced of his Christian sincerity, 
and also of the fact that he had no very 
adequate or indispensable reason for being 
a member of the Presbyterian Church. It 
became apiparent that he was so in sym- 
pathy with immersion ideas that he would 
not be heartily in accord with the life and 
work of the Presbyterian Church, and so. 
very kindly but frankly, I advised him to 
go to the church of which his wife was 
already a member. This he did, and has 
been since then, I believe, a very useful 
member of that organization. I was in- 
clined to think that this was much the 
wisest course, and I so think. 

I have never baptized any one by im- 

( 228 ) 



Religious Differences. 



229 



mersion, always believing that where peo- 
ple have their hearts set on this they would 
better go to a church where this is t ne 
accepted form. I have never been willing 
to say that immersion is not baptism, but 
I do believe that it is not the correct form, 
and it is not the form which is approved 
by our Presbyterian Church. I think that 
for any one to insist on receiving immer- 
sion at the hands of a Presbyterian min- 
ister is as incongruous as for one to ask 
baptism by sprinkling for himself and 
household in a church where immersion is 
the one rule. 

It is possible for evangelical churches 
having different theories and practices as 
to the form of the sacraments and of 
church government to maintain friendly 
relations, and to co-operate heartily in 
bringing the world to Christ, if they re- 
spect each other's conditions and do not 
deny one another's Christian standing, nor 
criticise one another in an unchristian 
spirit. One may preach a sermon on infant 
baptism setting forth the scriptural argu- 
ments for it, and showing the mistake of 
those who do not practice it without im- 
pugning their sincerity or severing relations 
with them as the followers of Christ. One 



230 Pastoral Memories. 



may preach on the form and meaning of 
baptism, and may show that sprinkling, as 
the type of spiritual cleansing by the Holy 
Spirit, is the scriptural demand, without 
denying the Christian character of those 
who, as he sees it, are mistaken in the 
matter. 

Each Church must have its formal or 
external life, expressing its faith in sacra- 
ment, public service and church govern- 
ment. It is right that this should be so. 
It is not right to condemn those who differ 
on these points, if only they are sincerely 
trying to serve Christ and lead souls to 
him. And it is well to conduct our pub- 
lic worship and make statement of our 
faith in such a way that those who come 
to us by letter, or who visit us, from other 
churches, will not be irritated or grieved 
even though they hear views expressed dif- 
fering from those to which they have been 
accustomed. They know there are differ- 
ences, and they expect to hear them stated 
and explained, but they do not need to 
hear words that will hurt their feelings. 

The tact that enables one to deal with 
those who hold differences of opinion, with- 
out offending them, is an element of power 
which every Christian worker should seek 



Religious Differences. 231 



to cultivate. Let every Presbyterian min- 
ister state the views of his Church as to 
doctrine, sacraments and all matters of 
church life in such a way as to be dis- 
tinctly understood, and yet in such a way 
as not to offend by a bitter spirit. It is 
a great mistake to pretend that one 4 or his 
Church, has no positive views on these 
points. People are glad and anxious to 
have light and instruction. But it is a 
great mistake to have no consideration for 
those who chance to be in the congrega- 
tion who have been taught and trained to 
accept other sides of the truth. 

Professor David Swing once told me that 
the way in which he came to have so 
few distinctive theological views was in 
trying, during his early days, to preach 
to churches of various denominations and 
say nothing that any one of them could 
not agree with. So he gave up all but 
a very few articles of belief. A plan which 
is better, because not so disastrous, is to 
have a very definite belief, founded on 
scripture teaching, as to all matters of re- 
ligious faith and practice, and to state 
these with plainness and simplicity, and 
yet with a spirit so full of Christian cour- 
tesy and kindness as to win the respect and 



232 Pastoral Memories. 



regard of those who listen. We can not 
all believe alike. It is foolish, and may 
be very hurtful, to claim that we have no 
differences. The essential matter, however, 
is that with all our differings we shall have 
the Christian spirit, and this will help us 
into much agreeing. 



THE SORROWS AND COMPORT OF 
LIFE. 



I was once called on to conduct the 
funeral service for a young woman on 
the very day that had been set for her 
marriage, and the white robe that she wore 
as she lay in her coffin was the one that 
had been fashioned as her wedding gar- 
ment. The young man to whom she had 
been betrothed stood with me beside her 
casket, and, as we looked upon her pale 
face, said amid his sobs: "This very day 
she was to have been my bride." 

This is a world of disappointments. 
Many are the breaking hearts and broken 
lives about us. Everywhere and always 
Rachel is weeping for her children, and 
will not be comforted, and Abraham is 
burying his beloved out of his sight. 

Of course, we can say in regard to this 
young Christian girl who lies dead before 
us in the cold embrace of death that, if 
she had lived to be married, and to have 
had a home and family, she might have 
had many troubles from which she has 
escaped. Of course, we can say in regard 

( 16 ) ( 233 ) 



234 



Pastoral Memories. 



to the babe that passes away from earthly- 
life that it has been delivered from all 
the possible ills that might have oome into 
its life. But this does not solve all the 
difficulty nor does it relieve the hearts of 
the sorrowing from all the pain. The best 
comfort is in the assurance that our lives 
are in the keeping of our heavenly Father, 
who is too wise to make mistakes, and too 
loving to afflict needlessly the hearts of 
his children who have accepted the cove- 
nant of his grace. 

Starting out one day on an express train 
from a great city, I noticed a freight train 
which was being made up, in the yards 
of another road, backing swiftly, and saw 
a trainman who was climbing down the 
last car at the end of the train fall across 
the rail and struggle beneath the wheels 
of the car. No one was near to see him 
or hear his cries. I sprang to my feet in 
horror, but it was useless. I could no*t 
even give an alarm. It was a hundred 
yards away. With a clang a train Inter- 
vened. The result could only be conjec- 
tured. Without a doubt he must have 
been crushed and another added to the 
long list of the sorrowful accidents which 
bring misery to human hearts and house- 



The Sorrows and Comfort of Life. 235 



holds. How many such accidents are oc- 
curring daily! The blow comes to some 
home, and many hearts are crushed, but 
the great world hurries on, and can not 
pause long for any sorrow. 

It is said that there are one hundred 
and fifty thousand graves of unidentified 
soldiers who fell in the late Civil War 
in our land. In the case of this number 
the friends know that the loved one who 
went out into the army is reported as 
missing. They have never had definite 
knowledge as to where he fell or was 
buried. In the case of other hundreds of 
thousands the mournful information is in 
possession of the sorrowing friends as to 
the death that came by wound or disease, 
and as to the location of the grave. In 
any case there is the bereavement, the 
darkened home, the vacant chair, the sad- 
dened hearts. We do not need to go far 
in any direction in order to meet with 
those who are carrying sorrows and disap- 
pointments in their hearts. 

I read not long since a letter from a 
man who is ardent in his advocacy of 
Mary Eddy's unchristian ideas. He said: 
"I have a right to be heard. I am in a 
position to demand respect for my opin- 



236 



Pastoral Memories. 



ions. I know what I am talking about. 
My father was a Presbyterian minister 
and my five brothers are Presbyterian min- 
isters or elders." Good taste would coun- 
sel him to silence. I am sure that those 
brothers are not advertising that the> 
have a brother who is a disciple of Mary 
Eddy. I am sure they consider his course 
a disgrace and think of his defection with 
sorrow. It is a grief to have a death in 
the family, but there are some things that 
are worse than death in their power to 
grieve the heart. Many a family has some 
sorrowful defection in the way of one 
member who has become a prodigal in 
morals or in faith, or in both. Many of 
the best people I have known have had 
such a load to carry. I have known no 
one who has not had some secret or public 
heart-grief, for help in which Christ was 
the only real comforter. 



LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE. 



Not long since I preached for a church 
with which I had spent some of the years 
of my earliest ministry. I found in its 
Session three young elders who, during my 
charge of the church, had been in the in- 
fant class. The Sabbath-school, as to its 
officers and teachers, was for the most 
part provided for in about the same way. 
All that is necessary is that enough years 
shall go around in order to effect great 
changes and make men and women out 
of the boys and girls. 

It is said of Philip the Second of Spain 
that one of his oft-repeated sayings was: 
"Time and I will accomplish wonders." 
A more Christian way of saying this is: 
"God will work wonders in time." In 
a few years the children will be mature. 
As they are properly trained and led into 
the service of Christ they will grow into 
useful, working men and women in the 
kingdom of God. If they are neglected 
they will be lost to the Church, and to all 
that is good. 

( 237) 



238 Pastoral Memories. 



The story goes that in painting his 
great picture, The Last Supper, Da Vinci 
painted the face of Judas some twenty- 
five years after he had painted the face of 
Christ, and upon conversation with the 
coarse, hardened, selfish, morose and 
brutal man whom he had chosen to per- 
sonate the traitor he found that in the 
earlier period he had selected him as just 
the one from whose features to paint the 
beautiful and spiritual face of the Savior. 
Just so surely, however, as time will leave 
its hardening process on the features and 
lives of those who go on in the ways of 
sin, there is the development into beauty 
and usefulness of those who give their 
hearts and lives to God. 

Some one said not long ago: "We might 
take lessons with profit from the Roman 
Catholic Church. Their priests work on 
with a wonderful patience and persistency. 
They get hold of the children and hold 
on to them, and almost before you realize 
it they are a body of grown men and wom- 
en. These people seem to work as if be- 
lieving of their church that the eternal 
years of God are hers." With the many 
changes occurring in our pastorates we are 



Looking Toward the Future. 



239 



too apt, as Protestants, to overlook some 
of these great facts and duties. The min- 
ister is much too apt to look for some sud- 
den results, and then hasten away where 
he may see some more sudden results, 
leaving the people unshepherded and the 
children unnurtured and the church un- 
guarded. 

Each child is important. This boy must 
not be lost He may become a minister or 
an elder, or a Sabbath-school teacher, or 
a worker in some place in the church. 
This girl must not be neglected. She may 
be the mother of a family of boys and 
girls to be trained for God, or she may 
become a wasted worldling or a moral 
pest. Christian work which holds the chil- 
dren and keeps them safely is accomplish- 
ing great results, and where the children 
are trained and kept the church will grow 
strong and remain strong with passing 
years. 

I heard the president of a Presbyterian 
college not long ago take to task the minis- 
ters of a large presbytery, of whom he said 
that scarcely one had given a son to the 
ministry of the gospel. "How can you ask 
young men to go into the ministry if your 



240 Pastoral Memories. 



own sons are seen to go into everything 
else under the sun? The fault is with you 
if there is a lack of ministers." If the 
church is supplied with ministers the call 
must be heard by the boys in the nursery, 
and their parents must help them to hear 
the call. The ministers of twenty years 
hence are the babies of to-day. 

Years ago two brothers went into the 
ministry. Seven of their sons followed 
their footsteps into the same work, and 
became useful and successful ministers, and 
to-day their grandsons are taking up the 
same glorious calling. We need to look 
ahead in our plannings for our children, 
and for the Church of God. The Church 
has a right to ministers and elders and 
workers in all its departments, and we 
must train up the boys so that they shall 
be found in the places where they may do 
their best and truest work for God. 

I have lived long enough to have per- 
formed the marriage ceremony in many 
instances for those whose parents I had 
united in marriage. I have received into 
the church those whose parents I had wel- 
comed. One generation succeeds another. 
The Church must have a succession of 



Looking Toward the Future. 



241 



pious generations. If it fails in the homes 
of its own people, it makes a sad failure. 
If it is to win the world to Christ, it must 
hold its own around its own family altars, 
and reach out for wider and farther con- 
quests throughout the world. 



"THE HOUR AND ARTICLE OF 
DEATH." 



I have visited a great many persons 
while on their death-beds, and have been 
present on many occasions when the last 
breath was drawn and the spirit passed 
away from the worn-out body, and I give 
my testimony, unhesitatingly, that it is a 
most dangerous thing for any one to leave 
the matter of personal repentance and sal- 
vation to the closing hours or days of his 
life. 

For one reason, there can be no certainty 
that the life will not be cut off suddenly 
without time for reflection. There are 
many sudden deaths. If one is prepared 
for death there is perhaps nothing to shrink 
back from in the mere element of sudden- 
ness. But if one is living an unconverted 
life he may well dread the thought of 
being called into the future life without 
having made his peace with God. I have 
been called to conduct the funeral of many 
persons who have been taken away as 
suddenly as a flash. Some of these had, no 
doubt, expected to give attention to their 

( 242 ) 



"The Hour and Article of Death." 243 



souls, but there was 110 assurance, as to 
some of them, that they had done so. 

Physicians say that ninety-five per cent. 
ol all deaths occur in unconsciousness. If 
this is true, only one person in twenty is 
conscious up to the last. Many, through 
the progress of disease or as the result of 
soothing remedies given to counteract un- 
bearable pain, are unconscious at the point 
of death. Even if one comes to his end 
through disease, the strong probability, in 
any given case, is that his dying hours 
or days will be a very unfavorable time to 
concentrate his attention upon that which 
should have the best thought and the most 
careful attention of all the matters of his 
whole life. 

I believe there is the account of but one 
death-bed repentance given in the Bible, 
that one case being the penitent thief who 
prayed to Christ: "Remember me when 
thou comest into thy kingdom." It has 
been said that there is one given in order 
that men may not wholly despair who have 
reached this hour unsaved, but that only 
one is given in order that all may be 
warned not to be presumptuous and put 
off repentance to some uncertain future. 

Many of the best men I have ever known 



244 



Pastoral Memories. 



have passed away without seeming to real- 
ize that they were dying, and from whom 
came not one word to their friends about 
their departure, although those friends, 
after they knew death was approaching, 
hung over them for some parting word. 
The best testimony to be given by any one 
is his living testimony. The great evan- 
gelist, George Whiteneld, after preaching 
many thousands of times, passed away 
without a farewell utterance, in line with 
his anticipation that he should die a silent 
death. Let the life be the time for testi- 
mony for Christ, for faithful and loving 
words to dear ones, and for preparation 
of every sort for the realities of death. 

I have known others who have passed 
away in great joy and gladness. One good 
man awoke from a stupor, some half hour 
before his departure, bade his loved ones 
farewell, and, asserting that the room was 
full of his dear departed friends who were 
welcoming him to the new home, went 
away with a smile of rapture on his face. 
One dear little girl, at the moment of her 
death, threw up her hands while her face 
lighted with joy, and, saying that the 
angels and her mamma and Jesus had come 
for her, passed away as sweetly as the 



"The Hour and Article of Death." 245 



exhalation of a flower. These are but a 
few instances out of many where death 
has seemed to be, visibly, but a change to 
a brighter world right at hand, and where 
the departing have gone out in joy and 
triumph. 

If one is a true child of God, there is 
nothing to dread in death or in what lies 
beyond. If one is not yet living in con- 
scious peace with God, there are innu- 
merable reasons why he should accept 
Christ in repentance and faith without let- 
ting another moment of uncertainty pass 
over his head. Of all of Satan's delusions 
there is none more dangerous than that 
one may turn to Christ and accept salva- 
tion at his dying hour. 



THE SERMON AS A MEANS OF GRACE. 

People are very much alike. Human na- 
ture may be said to be an invariable quan- 
tity. If it were not so, there would be 
very little value in the study of history. 
By knowing how people have acted in cer- 
tain circumstances a very correct judgment 
may be formed as to how other people, 
in other places and times, will act in sim- 
ilar circumstances. An old sermon, conse- 
quently, if it ever was a good sermon, is 
not a thing to be despised. 

I once found it a convenient thing to 
say that I had preached an old sermoa. 
A neighbor took offense over a sermon I 
had preached on Sabbath desecration, and 
said that I had been observing him and 
had taken occasion to give him, in this 
way, a public reproof. It was quite a 
pleasure to me, and a means of concilia- 
tion, to say that every word of the sermon 
had been, written before I had ever seen 
him. He withdrew his declared intention 
to never hear me preach again, and has 
ever since been a good friend and a regular 

(246 ) 



The Sermon as a Means of Grace. 247 



church attendant. I think the incident 
was a means of good to him in many 
ways. 

I have prepared with very considerable 
care some two thousand sermons. Some of 
these I hav« repeated a number of times, 
but never without special adaptation of 
the sermon to the peculiar circumstances 
in which it was to be employed. In a good 
many cases I have been compelled to 
preach without the preparation I would 
have desired, but I believe one should be 
ready to preach, on almost any occasion, 
at very short notice. The gospel is so 
many-sided, its facts are so rich and 
abundant, and one should become such a 
reservoir of its truths as to be able, with 
little notice, to open up some part of it 
to the profit of almost any congregation. 

Having occasion to preach in a church 
on Long Island one Sabbath evening, I 
stopped at the home of a brother minister 
who had just come in from an afternoon 
appointment. On the sermon he had just 
used he endorsed the date and laid it aside. 
"I suppose," said I, "that is to tell you not 
to use it there again." "No," answered he, 
"that is to tell me when to use it there 



248 Pastoral Memories. 



again. People forget a sermon inside of 
two years." Whether they do or not, he 
who depends on repeating old sermons will 
soon run out and dry up in the fountain- 
head. 

The ideal to be kept in mind whenever 
one goes into the pulpit is that each ser- 
mon, on whatever subject, should contain 
enough saving truth to lead a soul to 
Christ. I can say, in all sincerity, that 
I have tried to observe this as the change- 
less rule of my ministry. Looking back 
over the years, il suppose I have preached 
many sermons when no soul was con- 
verted, but I have tried to hold up Christ, 
and I have urged the people to look to him 
and be saved. I might have done it bet- 
ter, for no one may say positively that he 
has always done his best, but I have not 
knowingly departed from the truth or the 
spirit of Christ. I have many tender mem- 
ories of individuals whom I had specially 
in my mind while preaching particular ser- 
mons, and I have been told by many per- 
sons that they had been led to Christ or 
helped on their way by sermons I have 
preached. 

"Is the sermon done already?" asked a 



The Sermon as a Means of Or ace. 249 



woman who was passing a church as the 
service closed ana she met an acquaint- 
ance who was passing out with the con- 
gregation. "No/' was the answer; "it's 
just been preached. We've got all week 
for doing it." It was more than a pleas- 
antry. "Now, therefore, perform the do- 
ing of it," was one of the apostolic in- 
junctions that rings still for to-day. There 
is something vital in the satisfaction that 
arises from the fact that a good sermon 
continues to do good for weeks, it may be 
for years, and it may be for generations. 
The one who says "Your sermon led me to 
Christ" may be one who will lead many 
others to Christ in the course of his con- 
verted lifa 

A sermon is not itself an end. It is 
only a means of grace. It is important, " 
however, that, as a means, it should be 
as nearly perfect as possible, so that it 
may convey the truth to human minds and 
hearts. It has been my privilege to preach 
in nearly three hundred different houses 
of worship, and it is a joy to have ad- 
dressed so many thousands of hearers in 
so many places. It is a privilege to be a 
factor, however humble, in spreading the 

( 17 ) 



250 



Pastoral Memories. 



knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ, 
and in entreating any considerable part of 
one's fellow-men to be reconciled to God. 
Each service is an opportunity for doing 
immeasurable good; each sermon should 
be an affectionate spiritual message, and, 
in delivering it, the minister should al- 
ways endeavor to realize that he is an 
ambassador for Christ 



STUBBORNNESS AND FAITH. 



A very estimable and intelligent young- 
woman once wrote to me telling me that, 
although she had been a member of the 
church for some years, she did not feel 
that she had the saving experience in 
which she was able to realize the personal 
peace with God which she believed she 
ought to enjoy. As I had at one time 
been her pastor, she asked me to explain 
the whole matter to her, fully and simply, 
that she might grasp it fully, and under- 
stand just what she must do to be saved. 

I wrote to her at length, putting as much 
earnest effort upon the letter as if I were 
preparing a sermon, and I felt that it was 
well worth while to do so. I explained 
the great doctrines of grace, emphasizing 
the facts of sin, of God's love, of Christ's 
atonement, of the Spirit's readiness to 
lead the penitent soul into faith, the duty 
of turning from sin and self to rest upon 
the absolute declarations of God's readi- 
ness to forgive the penitent believer. 

She answered nie with many expres- 
sions of appreciation, telling me that she 
believed every word that I said, but that, 

(251) 



252 Pastoral Memories. 



after all, she could experience no sense 
of acceptance or peace with God, and asked 
me what she must do. Again I wrote to 
her, very fully, urging her to take God ai 
his word, and to make herself over to 
him, and then to rest on his promise as 
being absolutely fulfilled to her. Again 
she wrote that she could not make any 
advance toward the light, and again I 
answered as patiently as I knew how to 
write. Still again she implored me to 
make it plain, and tell her what to do. 

This time I told her that she was in her 
own way, acting as her own worst enemy, 
unwilling to yield her will and heart to 
God, and said: "I am sure that it is your 
own stubbornness that is keeping you from 
yielding to the saving love and grace of 
Jesus Christ." 

After some weeks I heard from her. This 
time she wrote in great tenderness of 
heart, saying that she was at peace with 
God as she never had been in all her life. 
She thanked me, but said: "I was at first 
hurt and angry, too, because you spoke 
of my stubbornness. But I now see that 
this was just what I needed to be told, 
and that it was simply my own stubborn 
will that has kept me away from God." 



Stubbornness and Faith. 253 



This is a point that needs often to be 
emphasized by the faithful pastor, evan- 
gelist and Christian friend and worker. 
Christ had to lament: "And ye will not 
come to me, that ye might have life." 
When the stubbornness of the human heart 
and will is broken down God's Holy Spirit 
finds the way plain before him to bring 
peace and salvation to the soul. 



THE PRAYER-MEETING PEOPLE. 

The prayer-meeting has been said to 
be the spiritual thermometer of the 
Church. There is much of truth in the ex- 
pression. Something of the spiritual con- 
dition of any particular church may be 
known by observing the proportion of the 
people who are interested in attending and 
taking part in this service. For, except in 
some special conditions, we take it for 
granted that each of our Presbyterian 
churches has its weekly prayer-meeting, 
and that this service is maintained with 
thoughtful and conscientious diligence. 

I have found all the churches, of 
which I have been pastor, very much alike, 
and especially in this that in each one I 
have found those whom I have known as 
the prayer-meeting people. The spiritual- 
ly-minded, devoted, praying, working, 
self-denying, missionary-spirited, strong, 
simple-hearted people who are found regu- 
larly at the weekly prayer service come 
to be, in every church, those upon whom 
the pastor most relies, those whom he 
most loves, and who sympathize with him 

( 254 ) 



The Prayer-Meeting People. 255 



most deeply, and love him most sincerely. 
They see each other, very often, at their 
very best, and go, hand in hand, in search 
of the best things, to the throne of the 
heavenly grace. 

I have come to know and love the elders 
of the church from seeing them and hear- 
ing them pray at this week-night service. 
Here is the place where elders are trained ; 
and where they develop, and my judg- 
ment is that it would be a very rash and 
venturesome thing for a church to select 
as its elders men who are not in the habit 
of attending and taking part in this meet- 
ing. 

Here I have met niy Sabbath-schoo 1 
teachers. Those who have enough spir- 
itual interest in the kingdom of God to 
be teachers in the Sabbath-school may be 
counted on as attendants of the weekly 
meeting, where prayer is made to God for 
his converting grace to come into the 
hearts of those as yet unsaved. It is pos- 
sible, usually, at this prayer service, to 
meet most of the teachers, and to talk 
over with them the lesson or the work of 
the school. 

So here I have found the women of the 
missionary societies, and the leaders in 



256 Pastoral Memories. 



the temperance work, and the persons 
most interested in other vital departments 
of the church's work. The men and wom- 
en who constitute the real heart of the 
church usually meet together in the place 
where prayer is "wont to be made," and 
so long as the heart is strong and health- 
ful the whole body is apt to be full of 
life. Among my most precious memories 
are of the hours 1 have spent with my 
"prayer-meeting people," at the sacred 
hour and place of the mid-week service of 
prayer. Let this meeting be one filled with 
prayer. Instruction is good, and singing 
is delightful, but where the hearts of the 
people are full of spiritual longing for 
God's blessing and their lips overflow with 
importunate petitions, the place is shaken 
and the kingdom comes, and God is glori- 
fied. 



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